March 29, 2024

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Phone hacking: BBC director general candidate accused of destroying evidence


Will LewisImpression copyright
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Will Lewis, one particular of the men and women shortlisted to be the following head of the BBC, has been accused of aiding the concealment and destruction of thousands and thousands of email messages relating to phone hacking at the News of the Planet and the Sunlight.

In performing so, the former Day by day Telegraph editor hindered felony investigations into the titles, it is claimed.

The allegations arrived to gentle in the Significant Courtroom on Wednesday.

Mr Lewis claimed the allegations towards him had been “wholly untrue”.

The 51-12 months-previous is one particular of 4 men and women being considered to switch Lord Hall as director normal of the BBC.

The promises emerged in a 137-web site document entitled “Re-amended particulars of concealment and destruction”.

The document is section of ongoing litigation in which forty nine claimants are currently suing The Sunlight and the now defunct News of the Planet for alleged phone hacking and unlawful facts collecting.

There are an believed further eighty three promises being well prepared.

In 2010, subsequent his time at the Telegraph, Mr Lewis grew to become group normal manager of News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publishers of the News of the Planet and the Sunlight, and was there at the top of the phone hacking scandal.

In July 2011 he was appointed to the administration criteria committee, which was set up to support the police who had been investigating phone hacking and payments by journalists to public officers.

Mr Lewis is named in a very long checklist of NGN executives, together with former main executives James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, and workers with alleged information of a plan of concealment and destruction of evidence.

The document cites an e-mail dated 11 January 2011 into which Mr Lewis was copied as alleged evidence of a go over up to let NGN time to go over its tracks and hold off police scrutiny.

It alleges that Mr Lewis realized of and had authorised a hold off and suppression of evidence, and the focused deletions of senior executives’ email messages.

He is also accused of having information (by way of an e-mail dated 24 January 2011 from Paul Cheesbrough – From 2010 until finally 2012, Mr Cheesbrough was main facts officer at News International 2010-2012 – to Ms Brooks, into which he was copied) of an alleged go over-up that authorized the wiping of again-up tapes and the development of an “extraction laptop computer”.

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What does the document say about Mr Lewis?

The scenario towards Mr Lewis is summarised in the document in the subsequent paragraphs:

“Will Lewis, Group Typical Manager, News International (September 2010 to July 2011), and Executive Member, Administration and Standards Committee (July 2011 to 2012)

“1. (51) Mr Lewis was section of the senior administration which organised or authorized intensive deletions of thousands and thousands of email messages to just take location with out preserving again-ups, in September 2010 and in January and February 2011, even however he was informed of the will need to maintain details for (a) the civil promises, which had been in whole swing by the time of his arrival in September 2010, and (b) by the next 7 days of January 2011, the stay police investigation (in this regard, it is to realistic to infer that he was demonstrated the letter from the MPS dated seven January 2011 referred to in paragraph 11.60D above).

“2. (fifty two) Mr Lewis was greatly and immediately included in the e-mail deletion system relied on by the Claimants above (together with each the batch and focused deletions). Jointly with Mr Chapman, Mr Lewis was immediately dependable for drafting the obscure standards for email messages to be preserved at the time of the batch deletions, which, as Mr Lewis was informed at the time, intended that any details that was considered not to drop in just the standards would be deleted.”




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PA Media
Impression caption

Will Lewis (remaining) denies the allegations, which relate to his time at Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers

The document alleges that phone hacking and other unlawful implies of acquiring private facts was each recurring and common at the two tabloids from 1994 to 2011, a lengthier period than was beforehand alleged, to the outcome that it began much previously and finished afterwards than beforehand claimed.

Denying the allegations, Mr Lewis claimed: “The allegation that I was included in any wrongdoing is wholly untrue.

“My purpose was to place points proper, and that is what I did”.

Ms Brooks was acquitted of conspiracy to hack voicemails, two counts of conspiracy to pay public officers and two counts of conspiracy to pervert the training course of justice subsequent a felony trial in 2014.