Mulcaire is told to reveal who commissioned phone hacking

 
10 April 2012

News International suffered a fresh blow today when senior judges ordered its former private investigator to reveal who commissioned him to hack phones.

Glenn Mulcaire lost an appeal against a court order that found he cannot rely on privilege against self-incrimination over his illegal interception of voicemail messages at the News of the World.

The private detective, who hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler for the defunct Sunday tabloid, lost his legal battle against a claim brought by comedian Steve Coogan and Nicola Phillips, a former assistant to publicist Max Clifford.

The Appeal Court ruling was issued by the country's highest-ranking judges Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Master of the Rolls Lord Neuberger and the vice-president of the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Maurice Kay. Mulcaire was granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Sources close to the case said the decision could trigger an "avalanche" of fresh claims against the Murdoch media empire as Mulcaire now has to reveal the identities of journalists who asked him to hack phones.

Together with ex-NoW royal editor Clive Goodman, the private investigator was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to hacking the phones of aides to Prince William.

Mark Lewis, Ms Phillips's solicitor, said his client "hopes that she will soon get the answers that she wants as to who from the News of the World instructed Glenn Mulcaire".

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