Police chief says his phone was hacked

Assistant Commissioner of London police John Yates said he was '99 per cent sure' his voicemails were intercepted by News of the World

Assistant Commissioner of London police John Yates said he was '99 per cent sure' his voicemails were intercepted by News of the World

Assistant Commissioner John Yates told the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee that he believed his voicemail messages were illegally intercepted between 2005 and 2006, when he was investigating the cash for honours scandal.



Questioned about the police's handling of the hacking crisis and his own failure to reopen the investigation when new claims of illegal activity at the News of the World emerged, Yates blamed News International for failing to comply with the police investigation.

His performance, during which he admitted that he had no idea what was contained in private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's notes, was branded "unconvincing" by committee member Keith Vaz and prompted several bouts of laughter from the panel.

The police inquiry into hacking began in 2005 and two years later Clive Goodman, the tabloid's royal editor, and Mulcaire were both jailed.

Yates oversaw a review of the investigation in 2009.

Asked about his decision not to reopen the investigation, Yates said there was nothing at the time which suggested new evidence.

Asked if he had ever been paid by journalists, Yates said, "That's an amazing question and I have never, ever, ever received any payment of that sort."

However, he said corruption in the police was inevitable. "...We're an organisation of 50,000 people, we have always said from time immemorial that some of those 50,000 people will be corrupt and accept payments," he said.

Yates also said he was never contacted by News International about his private life of put under any such pressure by the newspaper group.

Ex-pm's Fury
The Sun snooped into health records of Ex-PM Gordon Brown's sick son, it is claimed. Then editor Rebekah Brooks told him she knew Fraser had cystic fibrosis.

The then Sun editor told the stunned pair just months after the baby's birth that her paper had obtained his medical records from staff and discovered he was suffering from the often fatal disease.