Rupert Murdoch's Reign of Terror

Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News Of The World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own cellphone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to.

“If it is true that police officers knew their phones had been hacked, it is a serious matter that requires immediate investigation,” said John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, which investigated phone hacking. “It would be shocking.”

The lead police investigator on the phone-hacking case, Andy Hayman, left the Metropolitan Police in December 2007 after questions were raised in the news media about business. Mark Lewis, a lawyer who represents a number of high-profile hacking victims, said in an interview that he believed that Mr. Hayman was unwilling to investigate phone-hacking because he feared that the newspaper would reveal his relationship with a woman who worked at the Independent Police Complaints Commission.