The News of the World phone-hacking trial is still going on, and now a list of potential targets has been acquired by prosecutors. One well-known name on that list is Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton. The list was written by a private investigator who is one of many being accused in the phone-hacking trial. It was used as evidence in the trial on Tuesday at London’s Old Bailey court.
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, former editors at the News of the World tabloid, have been accused of conspiring “to intercept communications in the course of their transmission, without lawful authority” from October 2000 to August 2006.
Others accused in the phone-hacking trial include former News of the World employees Ian Edmondson, Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup.
The charges they face specifically state they listened to “voice mail messages of well-known people.”
A scanned copy of the handwritten list, titled “Target Evaluation” by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, was released by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Mulcaire has admitted he illegally tapped cell phones and voice mails for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.
Eighteen names, including Middleton’s, were found on the list. Other names include Angelina Jolie’s former stunt double, Eunice Huthart, London mayor Boris Johnson, royal aide Jamie Lowther Pinkteron, and celebrity public relations representative Max Clifford. SIx of the names on the list were edited due to privacy issues.
The CPS said, “Given the specific nature of this case, we must also consider the potential for repeat victimization of not only those involved in this case, but other possible victims, who may have also been the targets of phone-hacking.”
Brooks, Coulson, Kuttner, Miskiw, Thurlbeck and Mulcaire also face charges of tapping into the voice mail of Milly Dowler, a British schoolgirl who went missing in 2002 and was later found dead.
Another set of charges Brooks is facing involves obstructing the police’s investigation into phone hacking. She faces these charges along with her husband Charles Brooks and her personal assistant.
The hacking scandal had many questioning how police conducted their inquiries and started a public inquiry into journalistic ethics, as well as the relationship between the public and the press.