Missing Milly Dowler's voicemail "hacked by News of the World"

[ViolentPanda]

'If you do a favour for me, then I do a favour for you'

Caption should be either:
"Like Bill & Ted said, 'be excellent to one another', or else you'll sleep with the fishes!"
or
"...and on air guitar, Mr. Marlon Brando!!!"

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

This McMullan testimony is one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen. The man is not well, not well at all.

 

[gabi]

It was bonkers. I think he's just got to the point where he longer cares. Not sure if he's unwell.

A properly bizarre man though.

 

[OneStrike]

He must have some sort of mental condition, absolutely bizarre, justifying every low down thing he has done. With his attitude i can see how he got on in the trade for so long. His contempt for the police was amusing though.

 

[gabi]

He's got a fair point there in some ways. I suspect there are some more talented detectives working for NI than the Met.

 

[London_Calling]

4.22pm: McMullan says he regrets the stories he did on Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of actor Denholm Elliott.

She became a drug user and started begging following the death of her father and the News of the World exposed this.

I really regret it because I'd got to know her very well and I really quite liked her. The fact she was begging outside Chalk Farm station came from a police officer, who had been surprised when he asked her to move on.
I went too far on that story. Someone crying out for help, not crying out for a News of the World reporter.
I then took her back to her flat and took a load of pictures of her topless.
Then she went on TV and described me as her boyfriend.​

He adds:

When I heard a few years later that she'd killed herself I thought 'Yeah that's one I really regret.' But there's not many.
Sometimes I wouldn't have bought the News of the World even though I worked for it, but the British public carried on.​

 

[DaveCinzano]

The man is not well, not well at all.

Well, by his own account he was hit over the head with a lump of masonry. And he did "sniff around" a cocaine smuggling gang.

His daughter and the son of racist tram lady should set up a support group.

 

[MellySingsDoom]

^^^Truly, a man more humble than even the Divine Digger himself..

E2A: At London_Calling's quote of matey boy.

 

[idumea]

no sense of decency.

 

[Meltingpot]

Whilst I agree his privacy has been grossly invaded and he has every right to be pissed off it's remarkably difficult to give a flying fuck about him to be honest.

Whether you like him or not, he's clearly an intelligent man who as yardbird says makes a lot of valid points about (much of?) the tabloid press's cavalier attitude to privacy. Should we only care about the rights of people we "give a flying fuck about"?

 

[London_Calling]

Alastair Cambell on classic form at Levenson:

Senior executives and journalists from News International sent aggressive messages to Alastair Campbell in 2009 after the former Downing Street spin chief spoke out about phone hacking at the News of the World.

Campbell alleged in a written statement to the Leveson inquiry published on Monday that he received a series of "mildly threatening text and phone messages" from unnamed executives after he gave TV interviews about the Guardian's initial story on phone hacking at the News International title.

Err, right: where might they have picked up that technique from ....

 

[MellySingsDoom]

Alastair Cambell on classic form at Levenson:

Err, right: where might they have picked up that technique from ....

Yeah - remember him walking into Channel 4 news demanding an interview with John Snow at the time of the Iraq dodgy dossier stuff? (Which he got)

 

[agricola]

Anyone surprised that neither BBC or Sky News are covering Alec Owens testimony live?

 

[belboid]

the bbc are doing

 

[London_Calling]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_8167000/8167512.stm

 

[claphamboy]

Anyone surprised that neither BBC or Sky News are covering Alec Owens testimony live?

Well the BBC is online (see link posted by LC), which I heard them flag-up a few times on the News Channel, and no I am not surprised the BBC & Sky are not covering it live today on their main services - there are bigger stories today, such as the strike & Iran.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Anyone surprised that neither BBC or Sky News are covering Alec Owens testimony live?

Just use the Leveson Inquiry's own website:

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearings/

 

[agricola]

Well the BBC is online (see link posted by LC), which I heard them flag-up a few times on the News Channel, and no I am not surprised the BBC & Sky are not covering it live today on their main services - there are bigger stories today, such as the strike & Iran.

I meant live as in on the channel, without interruptions (as the various celebrities were). What Owens is giving evidence about is much worse than mere phone hacking, after all.

 

[claphamboy]

I meant live as in on the channel, without interruptions (as the various celebrities were). What Owens is giving evidence about is much worse than mere phone hacking, after all.

And the fact the there's more important news going on today stands, if they were covering that live and ignoring the strike whilst doing so, there would be a lot more people complaining, and rightly so IMO.

 

[DaveCinzano]

I meant live as in on the channel, without interruptions (as the various celebrities were). What Owens is giving evidence about is much worse than mere phone hacking, after all.

Aha, I see what you mean now.

 

[London_Calling]

Just use the Leveson Inquiry's own website:

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearings/

A handy link for anyone wanting to go back over previous sessions (inc. Campbell this morning).

 

[belboid]

I meant live as in on the channel, without interruptions (as the various celebrities were). What Owens is giving evidence about is much worse than mere phone hacking, after all.

the biggest strike in this country for decades, election results in egypt, revolt in syria. It's not really surprising that the on (and on and on) going inquiry isn't being covered 24/7

 

[DaveCinzano]

Solicitor Mark Lewis' supplementary statement, talking about how News International, its lawyers and private investigators covertly spied on him, his ex-wife and their children.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/74280104/Supplementary-Statement-of-Mark-Lewis

 

[London_Calling]

I do wonder, just a little, if Lewis is being a bit dramatic. NI did have a genuinely held belief - wrong, but genuinely held - that Lewis was up to his own tricks (in relation to his client/s in cases where NI was the other party) and investigated him. This is not unusual.

They never tried to influence his work, never approached him, just looked into his life - NI employed investigators obv. went to far in looking at his family, and you can't blame Lewis for his reaction (his own daughters being filmed, really for no good reason), but there's far worse to be looking at in this inquiry.

This kind of thing only really becomes interesting when a party tries to influence events through coersion, manipulation, blackmail, etc.

 

[belboid]

NI did have a genuinely held belief - wrong, but genuinely held

why on earth do you think they were 'genuinely held'?

 

[agricola]

the biggest strike in this country for decades, election results in egypt, revolt in syria. It's not really surprising that the on (and on and on) going inquiry isn't being covered 24/7

The strike is non-violent and has been known about for weeks in advance, the Egyptian elections arent being covered that much, and FWIW neither is the Syrian revolt. They also covered Campbell's testimony in considerably more detail, despite of course his own considerable sins when it comes to putting out false stories, bullying people and whatnot.

 

[London_Calling]

why on earth ...

LOL.

Ed, please get the ignore function back ASAP.

 

[sleaterkinney]

I meant live as in on the channel, without interruptions (as the various celebrities were). What Owens is giving evidence about is much worse than mere phone hacking, after all.

It's dynamite

http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp.../11/Witness-Statement-of-Alexander-Owens1.pdf

 

[belboid]

LOL.

Ed, please get the ignore function back ASAP.

either answer the question, if you're capable, or show some self discipline and ignore me all by yourself

 

[London_Calling]

Thanks for those choices. Really, I appreciate it.