Leveson Inquiry: News of the World had police surveillance team followed Published on Monday 19 March 2012 14:07 FORMER special forces soldiers were hired by the News of the World to follow a police surveillance team, tracking a suspect in the 2006 Ipswich prostitute murders, the Leveson Inquiry was told today. A retired officer at the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) - Dave Harrison - was giving evidence today. He claimed the now-closed newspaper jeopardised the official investigation into the killings. He told the inquiry: "If our surveillance had been weakened by having to try and avoid other surveillance teams looking for us, if we had lost the subject, he may have gone and committed further murders because we were dealing with something else." In December 2006, Suffolk Police asked Soca to provide surveillance officers to follow suspects in the then-unsolved murders of five women working as prostitutes in Ipswich, the hearing was told. Mr Harrison said he and his colleagues were told at a briefing that the News of the World had employed its own surveillance team to identify who they were, where they were based and who the suspects were. Asked how the paper learned that Soca officers were being sent to Ipswich, he said: "My opinion is it would have come from someone close to the investigation team, either the Suffolk inquiry or Soca." Mr Harrison said that, on at least two occasions, a vehicle parked up on a roundabout on the outskirts of the town attempted to follow the Soca surveillance team. "We identified them because they were sat in the position that we would sit in if we were doing the same job," he said. We were told that they were probably ex-Special Forces soldiers who would have a good knowledge of surveillance techniques. The former Soca investigator criticised the actions of the News of the World, which was closed last July after the revelation that it hacked murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone. He said: "Murder suspects before they are arrested, before they realise they are being investigated, may return to the scene of the crime. They may try to dispose of evidence, they may try to move bodies, they may even try to commit further offences... If they thought they were being followed, they might very well stop what they were doing or not do what they had planned to do. If a surveillance team cannot see the sort of evidence we were after, if that's not possible, then that weakens the prosecution case in the future. The Sunday Mirror used counter-surveillance techniques while driving one suspect in the Ipswich murders to a hotel for an interview, the press standards inquiry heard. Steve Wright was handed a whole-life sentence in February 2008 after being convicted of killing all five women. Daily Express crime correspondent John Twomey, who is chairman of the Crime Reporters" Association, said it was "shocking" that the News of the World followed a police surveillance team. "It's just quite unbelievable, really, that a newspaper should go to those lengths," he told the inquiry. I think it would have taken most reporters - certainly most crime reporters - by surprise. Mr Twomey denied a suggestion that journalists paid for meals in top restaurants with senior police officers as an "inducement." He said former Metropolitan Police counter-terrorism chief Andy Hayman was "freer in the way he expressed himself" after having a glass or two of wine over lunch but never gave away any secrets. The crime reporter also voiced concerns about a proposal that police officers should have to record all contacts with journalists. He said: "If, say, a Detective Chief Inspector is anxious to get promotion in the future, and a rule like that is introduced, should it be, then he or she will probably cease all contact. "Because when they go for promotion or maybe a selection board for a specialist CID unit, they don't want anyone to access the details and say "Well, hang on, that person on the list three years ago, for instance, has seen crime reporters every now and again."" James Murray, associate editor of the Sunday Express, said contacts between journalists and police officers had been much more difficult since the Guardian published an article last July revealing that the News of the World listened to Milly's voicemails. "That had an enormous impact throughout the industry to chronically - and potentially fatally - damage relationships between journalists and the police, because we do have a relationship of trust," he told the inquiry. Explaining why the Sunday Express does not belong to the Crime Reporters" Association (CRA), he said: "At the moment relations seem to be very poor between the Met and journalists. The normal lines of communications have been chronically damaged, potentially for a long time. We don't see any value at this stage in being a member of the CRA when so little information is coming out of the Yard. Mr Murray also described being given champagne by former Met commissioner Lord Blair when he visited New Scotland Yard with the Sunday Express's editor, former deputy editor and former crime editor. He said: "He (Lord Blair) was very friendly, very convivial, and there was a glass or two of champagne - certainly not a third glass - by way of just being pleasant."