Via The Independent:
A “lost” hoard of emails sent by senior executives in Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper empire at the height of the phone-hacking scandal has been found, The Independent has learnt.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are now expected to examine the database of emails in their renewed search for News of the World journalists who may have hacked into mobile phone messages or hired private detectives to do so in breach of privacy laws…
The claim that emails had been lost was made by the News of the World’s Scotland editor Bob Bird during the perjury trial of the former Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan in November. Giving evidence on oath, he said that many emails sought by the defence had gone missing while being transferred to India.
The claim prompted the Information Commissioner’s Office to launch an inquiry into whether the apparent loss of the emails broke the law governing the handling of sensitive data and its transfer abroad. If News International had broken the Data Protection Act it would have faced a fresh civil case, alongside civil actions brought by individuals who suspect their phones were hacked, and a £500,000 fine.
However, in a letter to the Information Commissioner’s Office, lawyers at News International’s Wapping headquarters told the ICO’s investigation team that it had archived emails and that none had been transferred to India.



2 Comments
this has the potential to do serious damage to murdoch.its not going to be a happy 80th birthday for him next month.
Oh, good! Murdoch seems to be in a real dilemma.