LONDON — British tabloid the News of the World faced claims Tuesday that it hacked into a missing 13-year-old’s cellphone messages, possibly hampering a police inquiry into her disappearance.
Milly Dowler was found murdered in the woods months later, and the report that her messages were tampered with has horrified Britons. Major advertisers – including Ford UK – have pulled their ads from the paper.
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Until Tuesday, the scandal mostly involved pro athletes, politicos and movie stars who were among thousands of possible victims of phone hacking by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator hired by the News of the World to ferret out scoops.
Mulcaire and the tabloid’s royal-family reporter were sent to jail in 2007 for illegally accessing private voicemails.
A new investigation by Scotland Yard has resulted in the startling revelation that first began to emerge Monday evening.
The latest hacking case was met with revulsion from Britons from Prime Minister David Cameron on down. “(It is) shocking that someone could do this, knowing that the police were trying to find this person and trying to find out what had happened,” Cameron said.
The case has refocused the spotlight on the News of the World, part of Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire at News Corp. It also comes as Murdoch is trying to engineer the multibillion-dollar takeover of British broadcaster BSkyB.
Milly vanished in 2002 on her way home from school in Surrey, south of London. Her body was found six months later .
As police were pursuing leads and Milly’s parents were making appeals for information, Mulcaire, working for News of the World, allegedly hacked into her phone, listened to her messages and deleted some to make room for possible new ones.
Police realized some messages had been deleted, stirring false hope that Milly was still alive.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer representing Milly’s parents, said Tuesday the suspected hacking may have hampered the police investigation and he plans to sue the tabloid for its interference.
Serial killer Levi Bellfield was convicted of Milly’s slaying June 23.
Police are now trying to determine whether the alleged hacking hindered their investigation of the kidnapping and murder. Lawmakers called an emergency debate today on the phone hacking.
Meanwhile, pressure mounted for the resignation of Rebekah Brooks, editor of the tabloid at the time of the alleged hacking .
Brooks, now head of News Corp.’s British subsidiary, News International, refused to step down, telling her staff in an email that she had no knowledge of the alleged hacking.
A News International spokesman said the company was cooperating fully with the police and would “get to the bottom” of the “distressing allegations.”
– The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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