text: 'Smoking gun' emails reveal News of the World bribes to police FOUR YEARS ago 
   
   
   
   An internal report uncovered 'smoking gun' evidence of criminal behaviour at the News of the World four years ago, it emerged yesterday. 
   
   The damning dossier was based on 300 emails that suggested hacking was widespread and journalists were paying police. 
   
   However it was not handed to Scotland Yard until last month. The revelation adds to mounting claims of a cover-up by News International bosses, who paid hush money to several high-profile hacking victims. 
   
   Criminal behaviour: An internal report uncovered 'smoking gun' evidence at the News of the World four years ago, it has emerged 
   
   Documents leaked to the Sunday Times, which is owned by News International, allegedly show a ‘cabal’ of six journalists acted as ‘gatekeepers’ to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who carried out hacking for the paper on a huge scale. 
   
   Sources said the emails show clear proof of criminal offences. 
   
   
   
   One told the Sunday Times: ‘During its document trawl on the hacking stuff they discovered some emails which seem to suggest that senior journalists had been paying substantial sums of money to police officers. They were clearly evidence of serious crime.’ 
   
   Smoking gun: Emails uncovered in an internal investigation revealed reporters were paying bribes to police 
   
   
   
   
   
   Further details of the alleged cover-up were revealed by the BBC’s Robert Peston, who is close to News International’s chief troubleshooter, Will Lewis. 
   
   He said that four years ago, the company found emails showing payments were being made to the police for information, although this evidence of alleged criminal behaviour was not handed to the Met until this June. 
   
   Although the emails do not identify police officers by name, they cross refer to the company’s cash records which identify the same four-figure sums mentioned in the emails. The total amount is said to be in the region of £120,000. 
   
   They also allegedly show that phone hacking went wider than the activities of a single rogue reporter. That was the News of the World’s initial claim when the paper’s royal reporter, Clive Goodman, was jailed in 2007 – the year in which the emails were found. 
   
   In a letter presented to the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, Harbottle & Lewis confirmed it had been asked by News International to review whether the illegal actions of Goodman were known to his News of the World colleagues. 
   
   A further 2,200 News of the World emails, which may contain evidence of criminal behaviour by the paper’s staff, are reported to be missing. 
   
   In this letter, dated 29 May 2007, and sent to Jon Chapman of News International, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis said they did ‘not find anything in those emails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman’s illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar illegal procedures’. 
   
   The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the emails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman. 
   
   However, when Will Lewis and his fellow News International executives re-acquired those emails from Harbottle & Lewis, they found what they perceived to be evidence that the illegal phone hacking went wider than just the activities of Mr Goodman and there were potentially illegal payments to the police. 
   
   A further 2,200 News of the World emails, which may contain evidence of criminal behaviour by the paper’s staff, are reported to be missing. 
   
   The revelations will pile pressure on News International’s chairman, James Murdoch, son of Rupert, and he could even face criminal charges in both Britain and America. 
   
   Former home secretary Alan Johnson has suggested he could be prosecuted under anti-snooping legislation. This is because Mr Murdoch admitted in a statement last Thursday that he had approved out of court settlements to hacking victims. 
   
   He said he was not aware of the specific details, but legal action could still possibly be taken under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigative Powers Act 2000, which covers the ‘criminal liability of directors’. 
   
   Four years ago the then executive chairman of News International, Les Hinton, told MPs he believed royal editor Goodman was acting alone. 
   
   
   
   Yates of the Yard faces calls to quit after apology for c**p investigation 
   
   By MARTIN DELGADO 
   
   Politicians called for a senior Scotland Yard officer to step down yesterday hours after he made an unprecedented apology for his handling of the hacking affair. 
   
   
   
   John Yates, who is an assistant commissioner in the Met, said he deeply regretted not launching a second probe into the News of the World scandal two years ago. 
   
   
   
   He said he had let down the victims and the Yard had been damaged. 
   
   Apology: Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner John Yates has admitted he let down the victims of phone hacking in the first investigation 
   
   ‘I didn’t do a review,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph. ‘Had I known then what I know now, all bets are off. I would never have reached this conclusion. 
   
   
   
   ‘I am accountable and it happened on my watch and it’s clear I could have done more. 
   
   
   
   ‘I have regrettably said the initial inquiry was a success. Clearly now that looks very different.’ 
   
   
   
   Mr Yates also dismissed claims – currently doing the rounds in police and media circles – that he had had any sort of relationship with Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International. 
   
   
   
   Facing police questions: news International chief executive Rebekah Wade 
   
   His decision to make his apology in a newspaper, rather than to MPs, prompted a furious political reaction. 
   
   
   
   Tory ex-minister David Mellor said: ‘If it had been left to the police it would all have been shovelled under the carpet and the heads of the Metropolitan Police would be down stuffing their faces in News International’s boardroom having a jolly old time with Rupert and his chums.’ 
   
   
   
   David Davis, another Tory former minister, said: ‘He should be appearing in front of parliament and answering questions, not putting out effectively a press release himself.’ 
   
   
   
   Mr Yates said News of the World staff had covered up the ‘industrial scale’ of the phone hacking operation by insisting just one rogue reporter was to blame. 
   
   
   
   ‘When we made the arrests in 2006 on the day we went to Wapping there was a Mexican stand-off, a lock down, and they wouldn’t let us in,’ he said. 
   
   
   
   The initial police investigation led to the jailing of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. 
   
   
   
   But, despite fresh allegations that thousands of public figures had been targeted, Mr Yates decided in July 2009 that there was no new evidence. 
   
   
   
   A senior Yard source said Mr Yates would not resign, adding: ‘He is an honourable man and he has done the right thing in making a very public apology.’ 
   
   
   
   Hindsight: Yates said that if he had known then what he knows now, he would have upped the police investigation into the phone hacking 
   
   This was despite Yates saying he had never seen the 11,000 pages from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's notebooks, which had been seized by police. 
   
   'I'm not going to go down and look at bin bags,' he said. 'I am supposed to be an Assistant Commissioner. Perhaps I should have been more demanding. I am accountable, and it happened on my watch, and it's clear I could have done more.' 
   
   'NINE JOURNALISTS AND THREE POLICE FACING JAIL 
   
   At least nine journalists and three police officers face jail over the phone-hacking scandal, according to reports from inside News International. 
   
   Internal papers dating from 2007 are understood to have contained evidence that hacking was more widespread than previously admitted. Scotland Yard was apparently not told about the document at the time but now has a copy. 
   
   A News International source was last night quoted as saying: 'We were sitting on a ticking timebomb'. 
   
   New documents are said to reveal that six journalists acted as 'gatekeepers' to private detective Glenn Mulcaire. They and three other journalists who knew about Mulcaire's activities may be charged, according to a Sunday Times report. 
   
   Separately, a cache of emails and cash records is thought to shed light on potential four-figure payments to police officers. 
   
   Meanwhile, News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks faces questioning by police in the coming days. The former News of the World editor is expected to be asked to present herself at a police station to explain, under caution, what she knew about phone-hacking and payments to police officers. 
   
   A News International source insisted she would be treated as a witness, not a suspect. 
   
   However, both the company and Scotland Yard refused to comment on whether Brooks would be quizzed. 
   
   
   
   In his extraordinary interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Yates was also forced to deny that he had a relationship with the News of the World's former editor Rebekah Brooks, now News International's chief executive. He dismissed the claims as 'malicious gossip'. 
   
   In a remarkable admission, Mr Yates, who has been widely criticised for failing to expose the full extent of the scandal, said: 'Should I have come out so quickly and said there wasn't anything in it? Tactically, I probably shouldn't have. 
   
   'I should have cogitated and reflected but it's so bloo dy obvious there was nothing there [that we didn't already know]. 
   
   'I didn't do a review. Had I known then what I know now – all bets are off. In hindsight there is a shed load of stuff in there I wish I'd known.' 
   
   Mr Yates was brought in two years ago to review the results of an earlier police investigation which led to the jailings of Mulcaire and News of the World Royal editor Clive Goodman. 
   
   But last night he said: 'Not in a million years did I ever think we would get to this point when I came to it in July 2009. It was relatively straightforward. 
   
   'The Guardian had raised a lot of issues. It was a bloody great story but the question was: was there anything new in it for us? The answer was no there wasn't.' 
   
   In an unprecedented apology to the victims of phone hacking – and in particular to the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone messages were intercepted – Mr Yates said: 'We are all extremely shocked by it and it is a matter of massive regret we didn't deal with it earlier. 
   
   'My byword has always been you look after the victims and the job will always resolve itself. I always put the victim first but here I didn't follow my principle and that is my greatest regret.' 
   
   Of the rumours regarding his relationship with Mrs Brooks, he said: 'There has been a huge amount of malicious gossip. I have laughed at it all. It is quite astonishing. I take it with a large pinch of salt. It's not true.' 
   
   He said other suggestions of improper relationships, made under the protection of parliamentary privilege, had deeply upset him. 
   
   Describing them as 'contemptible, utterly untrue, and cowardly', he said: 'I will take whatever action I can to defend myself on that. It can be shown on any number of levels to be false. Apart from that, I haven't got any strong views about it.' 
   
   The £180,000-a-year officer – dubbed 'Yates of the Yard' – split from Louise, his wife of 25 years, in the spring of 2009. 
   
   The pair separated, around the time that Yates – educated at fee-paying Marlborough College – was appointed Britain's top anti-terror officer. 
   
   He started a relationship with senior Yard Press officer Felicity Ross, who is in her 30s. She worked for Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson, though she has since left the police. Later in the interview, Mr Yates refers to the News International chief executive by her first name. 
   
   Asked whether Mrs Brooks should resign, he says: 'I think it is a matter for Rebekah, her company and her conscience. It has nothing to do with us.' 
   
   But he said it was a 'surprising development' that Mrs Brooks was still in her job. 
   
   He added: 'I have been around this business a number of years and have good relationships with the media, which I think is part of my role to help inform the context and some of them are in the News of the World.' 
   
   Mr Yates condemned the News of the World's failure to reveal emails relating to hacking until January of this year. 
   
   The newspaper had covered up the 'industrial scale' of its phone-hacking operation by insisting that one 'rogue reporter' was to blame. 
   
   He said Scotland Yard's reputation had been 'very damaged' by its failures. 
   
   Explaining his much-criticised decision to close the case, he said: 'To have given the go-ahead for a full review of a case of that nature would have involved four or five people and five or six months work and a lot of resources and in July 2009 why would I do that?' 
   
   
   
   ||||| News of the World is accused of hacking phones of 9/11 victims 
   
   Murdoch journalists 'wanted phone records of British victims' 
   
   Rebekah Brooks may be questioned under caution in coming weeks 
   
   
   
   Ed Miliband launches bid to postpone BSkyB takeover 
   
   
   
   Ground zero: News of the World reporters allegedly tried to hack phones of 9/11 victims 
   
   News of the World reporters tried to hack the voicemails of dead 9/11 victims, a former New York policeman claimed last night. 
   
   He alleged he was contacted by News of the World journalists who said they would pay him to retrieve the private phone records of the dead. 
   
   The former cop, who now works as a private investigator, said that reporters wanted British victim’s mobile numbers and details of calls in the days surrounding the tragedy. 
   
   The voicemails are likely to have included harrowing messages from distraught relatives desperately trying to contact their loved ones in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001. 
   
   
   
   A source told the Daily Mirror: 'This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data. 
   
   
   
   'He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their ­relatives. 
   
   'His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the ­relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.' 
   
   The source said that the ­journalists were interested in getting the phone records belonging to the British victims of the attacks. 
   
   
   
   Under American law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) makes it a crime for American companies to offer corrupt payments to foreign government officials. 
   
   If the allegations of payments to police officers are proven, Mr Murdoch could face an American prosecution in his role as deputy chief operating officer the US-listed News Corp. 
   
   A former New York police officer has also claimed that News of the World journalists tried to pay him for phone details of British 9/11 victims 
   
   Capitalising on grief: Reporters were allegedly tried to get hold frantic calls as the tragedy unfolded 
   
   In 2009, the former Hollywood producer Gerald Green was jailed for six months after being prosecuted under the FCPA for making $1.8m (£1.1m) in bribes to a Thai government official. Butler University law professor Mike Koehler, an FCPA expert, said: 'I would be very surprised if the U.S. authorities don't become involved in this News International conduct.' 
   
   He said the FCPA could be invoked because News Corp is an American company and because the alleged payments would have been made in order for the newspaper to make money from the stories obtained. 
   
   Brett Pulley, media correspondent for the Bloomberg news agency in New York, said: 'If the fall out were to continue, my goodness, if it were to impact James Murdoch, then we start to talk about it impacting News Corp’s succession plan, so that affects the company globally.' 
   
   Paul Farhi, media correspondent for The Washington Post, added: 'There’s a whole domino effect. What else falls apart? Do bankers get nervous? 
   
   'Rupert Murdoch had one flirtation with bankruptcy in the early 90s. He’s very dependent on the goodwill of Wall Street and of bankers. 
   
   “His company is very profitable now — it’s not quite the same as the 1990s — but he doesn’t want these dominoes to keep toppling … 
   
   'The fact he shut down a newspaper reflects how seriously the scandal is affecting a whole empire.' 
   
   In Slate.com, noted commentator Jack Shafer wrote: 'Like all reverse-ferret manoeuvres, the closing of News of the World is designed to scatter and confuse the audience. It looks like the sacrifice of something very special to him, seeing as it was his first U.K. newspaper acquisition in 1968. But it's not. 
   
   'It looks like atonement, but it's not. It's supposed to change the subject, but it's too late for that. 
   
   'The most shocking thing to me about the paper's closure is what an empty gesture it is. 
   
   'I expected much better from the genocidal tyrant. 
   
   'The tricky thing about the reverse ferret is that unless you nab the beast the moment it bursts out of a pant leg, it can be impossible to apprehend. 
   
   'From the way News Corp. is acting, it looks to me as if the Murdochs have lost control of their precious ferret. If I were Rupert Murdoch, I'd start wearing my socks over my cuffs. Ferrets will eat anything that looks and smells like meat.' 
   
   T he claims came as the disgraced paper's owner Rupert Murdoch flew into London to take personal charge of the phone-hacking scandal. 
   
   He first stopped at News International's headquarters in Wapping, East London, where he arrived in a red Range Rover, a copy of the last edition of the News of the World in his hands. 
   
   Protective: Rupert Murdoch guides Rebekah Brooks away from the media as they leave his London flat 
   
   Family affairs: James Murdoch leaves his father's Mayfair apartment yesterday. He later joined Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks at the Stafford Hotel where they were expected to dine together 
   
   
   
   Later yesterday he put on an extraordinary show of support for Rebekah Brooks - apparently unconcerned about her imminent interview under police caution. 
   
   Mrs Brooks, who has twice offered to resign over the controversy, was seen entering Mr Murdoch's Mayfair apartment at around 5.30pm yesterday. 
   
   Later, when asked what was his top priority, the 80-year-old media mogul gestured to Mrs Brooks. 'She is,' he replied. 
   
   The pair spent an hour in the apartment on the day the final edition of the News of the World hit news stands. 
   
   Then, in front of hordes of photographers, Mr Murdoch walked Mrs Brooks out of the block of flats with his arm firmly around her. 
   
   Last hurrah: Editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, poses with staff outside the newspaper offices for the last time 
   
   They had beaming smiles as they crossed the road to the Stafford Hotel, where they were expected to dine together. They were later joined by Mr Murdoch’s son, James, the chairman of News International. 
   
   Pictures of the 'Rupert and Rebekah show' will infuriate the victims of phone hacking and those who question her denials. 
   
   The phone hacking row erupted last week when fresh allegations emerged that News or the World journalists paid private investigators to hack into the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. 
   
   They are also alleged to have listened in on voice messages from the family of Soham victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. 
   
   Hordes of advertisers finally abandoned the 'toxic' paper, forcing it to close, when it was revealed that they may have hacked into the phones of war dead. 
   
   Alleged victims: The families of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman are claimed to have had their phone hacked alongside Milly Dowler when she was missing 
   
   
   
   A string of the paper's senior executives, including Mrs Brooks, face being quizzed as potential suspects or witnesses over their roles in the phone-hacking scandal which brought down the 168-year-old title she once edited. 
   
   Mrs Brooks is set to be questioned under caution in London in the next two weeks. She will be asked to give a full account of her actions during the period from 2000 to 2003 when she was editor. 
   
   It has also been revealed that at least nine former News of the World journalists, and three police officers, face charges over the hacking and corruption scandal. 
   
   Meanwhile, a 63-year-old man arrested on Friday has been bailed. Officers would not confirm reports he is a private investigator 
   
   The scandal has threatened Murdoch's controversial bid to take full control of BSkyB. 
   
   Labour leader Ed Miliband plans to attempt to force through a Commons vote this week that could see the deal postponed until after the police investigation into phone hacking is complete. 
   
   M<r Miliband said yesterday: 'The idea that this organisation, which has engaged in these terrible ­practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB... without that criminal investigation having been completed, and on the basis of assurances from that self-same ­organisation… frankly that won’t wash with the public.' ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rupert Murdoch has met Rebekah Brooks over the phone-hacking scandal 
   
   News International found e-mails in 2007 that appeared to indicate that payments were being made to the police for information, although this evidence of alleged criminal behaviour was not handed to the Metropolitan Police for investigation until 20 June of this year. 
   
   According to sources, these e-mails were in the possession of the firm of solicitors, Harbottle & Lewis. 
   
   They were retrieved from Harbottle & Lewis by lawyers acting for News Interernational and for William Lewis - general manager of News International - who is in charge of News International's clean-up of what went wrong at the News of the World (and who was recruited by News International last July). 
   
   The e-mails appear to show Andy Coulson, editor of the News of the World from 2003-2007, authorising payments to the police for help with stories. 
   
   They also appear to show that phone hacking went wider than the activities of a single rogue reporter, which was the News of the World's claim at the time. 
   
   Mr Coulson, who subsequently became David Cameron's director of communications in 10 Downing Street, was arrested and bailed last week. 
   
   In a letter presented to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Harbottle & Lewis confirmed that it had been asked by News International to review whether the illegal actions of Clive Goodman - the News of the World's former royal editor, jailed in 2007 for phone hacking - were known to his News of the World colleagues. 
   
   In this letter, dated 29 May 2007, and sent to Jon Chapman of News International, Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis wrote that it had "reviewed e-mails to which you have provided access from the accounts of Andy Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Ian Edmondson, Clive Goodman, Neil Wallis, Jules Stenson". 
   
   Mr Abramson confirmed to Mr Chapman that it "did not find anything in those e-mails which appeared to us to be reasonable evidence that Clive Goodman's illegal actions were known about and supported by both or either of Andy Coulson, the editor, and Neil Wallis, the deputy editor, and/or that Ian Edmondson, the news editor, and others were carrying out similar illegal procedures". 
   
   The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the e-mails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman. 
   
   However, when William Lewis and his fellow News International executives re-acquired those e-mails from Harbottle & Lewis, they found what they perceived to be prima facie evidence that the illegal phone hacking went wider than just the activities of Mr Goodman and that there were potentially illegal payments to the police. 
   
   William Lewis went looking for these e-mails after the Metropolitan Police of Operation Weeting, who are investigating alleged phone hacking, enquired about the existence of 2,500 e-mails that Colin Myler - who replaced Andy Coulson as editor of the News of the World - mentioned to MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee. 
   
   Mr Myler told the MPs these e-mails had been trawled through as part of his own inquiry into whether hacking was carried out by others than Mr Goodman. 
   
   In response to a question by the MP Philip Davies about whether Mr Goodman was working alone, Mr Myler said: "I conducted this inquiry with Daniel Cloke, our director of human resources. Over 2,500 e-mails were accessed because we were exploring whether or not there was any other evidence to suggest essentially what you are hinting at. No evidence was found; that is up to 2,500 e-mails". 
   
   William Lewis and his News International colleagues on a newly created management and standards committee have not found the full 2,500 e-mails mentioned by Mr Myler, just the sub-set of 300 that were passed to Harbottle & Lewis. 
   
   The disclosure that News International found 300 e-mails as long ago as 2007, that indicated wider malpractices at the News of the World than those which led to the jailing of Mr Goodman and of the private detective Glenn Mulcaire, will pose very difficult questions for News International's chairman, James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch. 
   
   In December 2007, James Murdoch took charge of News International as chief executive of the European and Asian operations of its parent company, News Corporation. 
   
   Some four months later, in April 2008, he authorised the payment of a substantial out-of-court settlement, running to hundreds of thousands of pounds, with Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, over the hacking of Mr Taylor's phone. 
   
   That settlement - which was agreed by Mr Murdoch and signed by News International's chief operating officer at the time, Clive Milner - contained a gagging clause, making it impossible for either party to talk about the settlement or what led to it (though many of its details were subsequently revealed by the Guardian). 
   
   Mr Murdoch has now conceded that it was wrong of him to agree to the settlement with Mr Taylor and also to other out-of-court settlements made at a similar time. 
   
   He said on Thursday: "I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret." 
   
   There have been allegations that Mr Murdoch, in settling with Mr Taylor, was endeavouring to put a lid on the furore to deter a wider police investigation of the News of the World's behaviour. 
   
   News International denies this. 
   
   It insists that Mr Murdoch only approved the Taylor settlement and gagging clause because he was ignorant of the alleged transgressions by other News of the World journalists. 
   
   In particular, News International says Mr Murdoch had no knowledge of the 300 e-mails that Harbottle & Lewis were asked to review.
target: – Rupert Murdoch's shamed and now shuttered News of the World tried to pay a New York City police officer for phone records on British victims of 9/11, Reuters reports. The police officer, who now works as a private investigator, turned down the offer because it would "look bad," a source told the Daily Mail. Other substantial sums were apparently paid to British cops for information on a number of other news stories, reports the BBC. Emails dated 2007 indicate that then-editor Andy Coulson authorized payments to cops for inside info, according to sources. That email evidence, uncovered by a law office, was not turned over to investigators until last month. Coulson, who has been arrested in connection with the News of the World's burgeoning phone hacking scandal, was subsequently hired to be Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications—but stepped down early this year.