Rupert Murdoch has backed down on earlier claims that the UK phone hacking probe was "totally incompetent"
Sam Lister Date July 19, 2013
Rupert Murdoch during a parliamentary committee hearing on phone hacking at Portcullis House in London in 2011. Photo: Reuters
[ lol .. the 'shirt collar' horns sit well on Murdoch's 'ead ]
Rupert Murdoch has rowed back from claims that the investigation into phone hacking and corruption is "totally incompetent", but says Scotland Yard's probe appears "excessive" and has "gone on too long".
In a letter responding to demands from MPs that the media magnate explain comments he made about police at a staff meeting, he conceded using the "wrong adjectives" to describe his frustration at events over the last two years.
"I accept that I used the wrong adjectives to voice my frustration over the course of the police investigation."
But the News Corp boss also questioned whether officers had "approached these matters with an appropriate sense of proportion" and said it would be unfair to suggest his company had impeded the Metropolitan Police's inquiries.
Murdoch was apparently recorded describing the treatment of journalists who had been arrested as a "disgrace" during a meeting in March and saying that police had been told to obtain court orders to get information, rather than the company offering up material as it had done previously.
Home Affairs Select Committee chairman Keith Vaz wrote to Murdoch asking him to comment on the secret recording.
In a reply released on Thursday, Murdoch said: "I accept that I used the wrong adjectives to voice my frustration over the course of the police investigation.
"But I had been hearing for months about pre-dawn raids undertaken by as many as 14 police officers, and that some employees and their families were left in limbo for as much as a year and a half between arrest and charging decisions."
He added: "I have no basis to question the competence of the police and I and our newspapers respect the work that they do every day to protect the public.
"But I do question whether, over the last two years, the police have approached these matters with an appropriate sense of proportion, and with regard for the human cost of delay."
The letter sets out how the company disclosed 500,000 documents after 185,000 man hours at a cost of more than STG65 million ($A108 million).
Nick Miller Europe Correspondent Date July 7, 2013
Mary-Ellen Field, former business adviser to supermodel Elle Macpherson. Photo: Getty Images
Police are investigating whether the former business advisor to Elle Macpherson who sued News International over phone hacking is under surveillance by private investigators.
The Independent on Sunday reports that the CID launched a stalking investigation after a senior police detective noticed a 'tail' while meeting Mary-Ellen Field in May.
The detective then advised Ms Field on techniques for losing a tail.
A complaint was lodged at Wimbledon police station then passed on to the CID which launched the investigation.
According to the newspaper, one of the surveillance team may be a freelance private investigator based in Sussex, though police have not yet made any arrests.
Ms Field recently withdrew her long-running legal action against News International, after not being able to gather enough proof that the hacking of Elle Macpherson’s voicemail was behind her being 'sacked' by the supermodel in 2005.
After the claim was withdrawn News were awarded 75,000 pounds ($123,000) in legal costs against Ms Field, which she says she cannot afford to pay.
In the past, the now-defunct News of the World newspaper used private investigators to follow people including lawyers acting for phone hacking victims. However The Independent said there was no suggestion that the investigator who was tailing Ms Field was in any way connected to NI.
"I’m very annoyed - I want to know why they’re doing it," Ms Field told Fairfax.
"I noticed (the tail) before police but I didn’t say anything to anyone because I thought everyone would think I was paranoid.
"When (the police officer) told me I was relieved because I was so sure, I kept seeing the same people in the street and on buses.
"He wasn’t making any secret of the fact, either that or he wasn’t any good at it."
Ms Field, a respected and successful businesswoman who specialises in intellectual property and tax law, had Macpherson as her client for two years from 2003.
However the relationship suddenly took a turn for the worse in late 2005. Ms Field believes she took the blame for leaking stories to the press, which were actually obtained by voicemail hacking.
Macpherson was named in court as a phone hacking victim in 2006, however she has never publicly discussed the affair.
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