Leveson inquiry witness Statement of DAC Sue Akers

8/3/2019 Leveson inquiry witness Statement of DAC Sue Akers

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For Distribution to C Ps

Statement made on behalf of:Witness:

-I-he C omm issioner of Police of theMetropolisSue Akers

Statement No: 1Exhibits Referred to: None

Date Statement M ade: 11 November 2011

The Leveson Inqu iry into the C ulture Practices and Ethics of the Press

Witness" Sue AkersOccupation: Deputy As sistant Com missionerAddress: c/o New Scotland Yard

I believe the facts stated in this witness s tatement are trueSigned ..........................

, I joined the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)in 1976 and have spentthe vast m ajority of my career as a detective serving at police stat ions allover London. Specialist postings have included the Serious andOrganised Crime Group on a variety of squads, child protection andhom icide investigation at Detective Inspector, Detective C hief Inspec torand Detective Superintendent ranks. I also trained as a hostagenegotiator.

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,From 2001 unt il 2004 I was the Borough C omm ander for Barnet beforeattending the Strategic Command Course and being promoted to therank of Commander in 2005.

,My first posting as a chief officer was as the Commander of theDirectorate of Professional Standards. This role had a wide rangingresponsibility including anti-corruption investigations, public complaintsand internal investigations, m isconduct issu es and c ivil claims against theMPS. I was heavily involved in building effective working relationshipswith the newly constituted Independent Police Com plaints C omm ission.

,I returned to the business of special ist crime in 2007 and held the post ofCommander for Organised Crime and Criminal Networks. This roleinvolved, among other things, responsibility for gun crime in London -both Flying Squ ad and T rident-, kidnaps and tackling organised criminalnetworks.

, I was awarded the Queens Police Medal for services to policing in the2007 Qu eens Birthday Honours.

,On being promoted to Deputy Assistant Com miss ioner in 2009 I widenedmy specialist crime remit and led the MPS response to all serious andorganised crime, adding homicide, serious sexu al offences, child abuse,econom ic and e-crime to my previous p ostings respon sibili t ies. Delivery

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of forensics, intell igence, covert as sets an d s pecial ist training to sup portthe operat ional response, also fell within m y area of business.

,In addition to my general responsibilities as deputy to the AssistantC om m issioner, Special ist Crime, I have led several of the highest prof ileM PS investigations including:-

Allegations of complicity into the torture of detained suspects byBritish officials;Allegations of phone hacking- Operation W eeting;

Allegations that the police accepted payments for supplyinginform ation to newspap ers- Operation Elveden;Allegations that private investigators hacked into computers forprivate information on behalf of journa lists - Operation Tuleta.

Since Jun e 2011, due to the size and com plexities of these e nquir ies, Ihave been largely dedicated to their oversight.

,This statement is made in relation to my role as Head of OperationsWeeting, Elveden and Tuleta. I am ultimately the person in charge ofthese investigations and I report to the Dep uty C omm issioner.

,My role within Operation Weeting is to set the parameters and strategyfor the investigation and to have ult ima te operational oversight.

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my responsibility to ensure that the investigation is conducted in ar igorous, efficient and robus t man ner, to ensure that w ork is priorit ised,that appropriate resources , including detectives an d police staff with theright mix of sk ills, are deployed to this major inquiry.

Operation W eeting comm enced on 26 January 2 011. It fol lowed on fromtwo previous MPS enquiries into phone hacking, these being OperationCa ryatid from 2006 to 2007 and Operation Varec in 2010.

Operation Caryatid led to the prosecution of Glenn Mulcaire, privateinvestigator and Clive Goodman, the Royal Correspondent for News ofthe World. Both pleaded guilty to counts of voicemail interception and anoverarching count of conspiracy to intercept communications. On 26January 2007 both were sentenced to terms of imprisonment.

Operat ion Varec w as com menc ed in order to review c laims made in theNew York Times newspaper on 1 September 2010 that Andy Coulsonhad in fact known more about phone hacking than he had admittedpublicly. -I-his investigation led to a number of persons being interviewedunder caution but no prosecutions were forthcoming.

On 26 Janu ary 2011 a ne w police investigation, Ope ration W eeting wasannounced in light of significant new information being provided to the

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MP S by Ne ws International relating to allegations of phon e hacking at theNews of the World in 2005/2006.

Operation Caryatid and Operation Varec had been undertaken by theCo unter Terrorism C om ma nd in Specialist Operations. Howev er, in viewof their workload in early 2011 and the c ontinuing severe terrorism threatlevel, it was decided that it would not be appropriate to divert that unitfrom its core bu siness and responsibil it ies. Ac cordingly, I was ap pointedto lead the new investigation from within the Specialist Crime Directorate.

15. Operation Weeting is actively undertaking a robust and thoroughinvestigation. Num erous l ines o f enquiry arising from ma terial seized arecurrently being pursue d. The m ain two strands being considered are:

(i) the identif ication o f potential victims ; and( i i ) a criminal investigation, which I have publicly stated will follow the

evidence trail to its con clusion.

IDEN TIFICATION OF POTEN TIAL VICTIMS

On my appointment Idecided that a fresh approach towards informingvict ims and potential vict ims s hould be adopted.

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Documents seized in 2006 by Operation Caryatid included Mulcairesnotebooks which run to some 11,000 pages. The number of potentiallyidentif iable persons who are contained within the docum ents seized (andwho therefore m ay be vict ims) w here names (a surname an d at least aninitial) are noted is 5,795. The quality of the data referring to theseindividuals varies greatly from a simple mention on one page to entrieson m ult iple pages c overing extensive enquiries into a potential vict im andthose ass ociated with them. It has also bee n established that the personbeing "targeted" by Mulcaire, may not always have been the personidentified in the document, as often the hacking was directed atassociates of the true target with a view to finding information about thetrue target. Accordingly, this f igure is very l ikely to be revised as furtheranalysis of the documents continues and as more and more potentialvict ims are interviewed.

The range of the persons contained w ithin those do cum ents is extensiveand not only include politicians, members of the Royal Household, highprofile f igures s uch as sports personalit ies and actors, but also vict ims ofcrime , other journalists (e.g. from the N ew s of the W orld itself) and po liceofficers, including very senior officers such as a previous MPSCommissioner. It is a general matter of concern and legitimate publicinterest as to how Mulcaire obtained these details and this is a strandthat is und er active investigation.

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19. Operation W eeting is w orking closely with all the phone service providersto identify individuals who are contained within the documentation wehold.

20. Part of my team are aiso cu rrently mak ing contact with everyone whos epersonal details they can identify from within the documents seized in2006 . This is a major task and is taking a significant amou nt of t ime andresource s. In som e case s, contact is ma de on the init iat ive of my team ,when they are able to discern contact details from the material;sometimes the contact is made at the initiative of the individual, whenthey make contact with the team to ask if their details appear in thematerial.

21. To date some 1,800 individuals have been contacted to inform them asto whether their details ap pear in any of the docu ments seized. Of these,approximately 600 do appear in the documents and have been spokento, notified and given the opp ortunity to see the docum ent(s) that containtheir details. My team have been responsible for identifying, initiatingand then contacting 400 of these individuals. The remaining 200 madethe initial enquiry to my team to ask if their details appeared in thematerial. Some of these individuals have provided statements to policeto assist with the criminal investigation and any su bsequ ent prosecu tion.It wi ll take the police a signif icant period of t ime to m ake c ontact with allof the remainder. Many of these individuals have informed police thatthey do not want their details or names to be released into the public

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dom ain and w e are str iving to protect the r ights of these individuals an dtheir confidentiality.

CRIMINAL INVES TIG ATION

In relation to Operation Weeting, 13 suspects have to date beenarrested. The offences currently being considered include conspiracyunlawfully to intercept voicemails contrary to s.1(1) Criminal Law Act1977 and the i llegal interception of com mun icat ions c ontrary to s. 1 RIPA2000 . The 13 suspec ts have been released by police on pre-charge bailand m ost are due to return to the police stat ion in M arch 2012 and all arelikely to be re-interviewed. It is impossible to anticipate what significantevidence the police m ay need to quest ion them a bout in due course.

Operation Weeting is also currently assessing whether there may beevidence that some of the suspects engaged in similar phone hackingconduct while employed by other newspapers. This line of enquiry,how ever, is stil l at a relatively early stage.

Additional suspects are also still being identified and the investigation isstill searching for and obtaining / seizing / acquiring / evaluating andasses sing a subs tantial volum e of new m aterial.

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25. Our enquiries are ongoing and it is essential to recognise that theevidential significanc e of muc h of the m aterial referred to below is not yetfully known. This has already become apparent on a number ofoccasions when we have come into possession of a document that onthe face of it may a ppear to carry a clear m eaning but w hich, upon furtherinvestigation, has turned out to be ne ither acc urate, true or fair.

26. The following overview of the current police inves tigation is therefore onlya snap shot picture an d an incom plete picture at that, of the position as ofthe date of this statemen t.

M U L C A I R E

27. Operation Weeting has to date established that there is evidence that aformal contractual relationship existed between the private investigatorGlenn Mulcaire and the News of the W orld f rom 1 Sep tember 2001. Thiswas remunerated at a weekly rate which in 2001 equated to an annualfigure of 92,000. Additional payments were made for material whichresulted in the publication of specif ic stories.

28 . The contract was renewed on effectively an annual basis although atvarious times the name given to the party contracting with the News ofthe World was not recorded as Glenn Mulcaire. From 2002 the basicremuneration being paid to Mulcaire increased to an annual figure of

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104,988 plus bonuses. He cont inued to be paid week ly by the New s ofthe W orld until 21 January 2007.

On 26 January 200 7 Mu lcaire was sentenced to 5 months imprisonment.He was released from custody on 26 April 2007. On 23 February heinformed the News of the World that he intended to commence unfairdismissal proceedings against them in an employment tribunal. Thepapers Mulcaire prepared for this purpose made reference to others inthe newspa per being aware o f his phone hacking ac t ivity.

Some of the current police suspects had a direct involvement in one ormore of the renewals of M ulcaires contract.

W hile information about M ulcaires c ontractual relationship with the New sof the W orld is in the public doma in, the part played by current susp ectsin making these arrangements is not. Neither are the full details of hisemployment proceedings, although the fact of the proceedings were

disclosed to the Culture and Media Select Committee and some detailsof this are disc losed on their webs ite.

M ulcaires ow n records indicate that the hack ing of mobile phones w ascentral to his conduct. Although he may have used other methods ofresearch, these appear to have been largely to su pport and facili tate thiscentral activity. This is evidenc ed by:

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(i) M ulcaires written records. As stated in paragraph 17, there areapproximately 11,000 pages of material of this nature, coveringthe period from January 20 01 unt i l August 2006. These c onsist ofdaily tasking shee ts which incorporate general research and theresult of hacking activity. Mulcaires practice was to write thename of the person tasking him on each sheet. Nine potentialsuspects are so named.

Emails he exchanged with key suspects employed by the Newsof the W orld. Some of these refer directly to the produ ct of whatcan have only been hacking.

( i i ) Au dio tape recordings of voicemails being hacked.

(iv) Notes of hacked voicemail messages, plus one full transcriptcontaining the content of a number of m essages.

( v ) Telephone reco rds evidencing hac king activity interspers ed w ithtelephone contact with those respons ible for his tasking.

Although the existence of Mulcaires named daily tasking sheets is inthe public domain, the names of potential suspects and most victimsas recorded by Mulcaire on these sheets are not.

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The earliest identified incident of hacking by Mulcaire for whichevidence has been recovered to date arises from his accessing thevoicem ail of Mil ly Dow ler in Ap ril 2002 . The evidence su rrounding thisis subjec t to the ongoing police inves tigation.

Numerous lines of enquiry arising from Mutcaires material arecurrently being pursu ed som e of which is cons idered to provide directevidence o f the kno wledge an d part icipation of suspects in his phonehacking activity. During the current investigation it has formed thebasis for questions asked of suspects under caution during policeinterviews. Until all lines of enquiry have been completed it remainspossible that other parts of the material, the significance of which isstill being assessed, will form the basis for further questions insubs equent interviews.

G O O D M A N

In March 200 7 Clive Goodm an sought to appeal the decision of the Newsof the W orld to dism iss him from his em ploymen t fol lowing his convict ionin 2006 for phone hacking. Copies of his appeal documents wereprovided to the investigation by News International in June 2011. In theseGoodman names some of the current suspects as having knowledge ofhis phone hacking activities and also claims that they also supported

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suc h activit ies. These docu me nts are not currently in the public doma in.Goodmans appeal was settled by his former employer in April 2007 atwhich t ime he wa s paid 140,000.

In June 2011 News International also provided the MPS with materialwhich led to the establishment of Operation Elveden. This material wasdrawn in part from the files of Harbottle and Lewis, Solicitors, andconsisted of emails exchanged du ring 2003 and 2005 . The ful l content ofthese emails has not been released into the public domain and to do soat this stage w ould seriou sly interfere with the police investigation.

Other exhibits that have been seized from suspects following arrest inrelation to both Operations Weeting and Elveden are also beingexamined for evidence of paym ents to police officers. These include bothdocumentary exhibits and computer hard drives. Other electronic datahas bee n requested from Ne ws Internat ional and is aw aited.

OTHER LIN ES OF EN QUIRY RELATIN G TO PHON E HACKI NG

Since Operation Weeting commenced the investigation has obtained avast quantity of other previously unexplored email data from a variety ofsources.

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( i) News International has an enormous quantity of material which is,or may be, relevant to our investigation. Some of this may beevidence in the event of prosecutions. The only options we haveavailable to obtain that material, given it will largely comprise ofjournalistic material, is either for it to be produced voluntarily orproduc ed pu rsuant to a court order. Given there are both lega! andpractical difficulties in obtaining such material, we have been leftwith little alternative but to obtain evidence from News Internationalby voluntary production,

( i i ) News International has therefore been providing the investigationwith categories of emails on request, subject to a filtering processwhich are set out in a voluntary disclosure agreement. Some ofthese contain evidence of the knowledge and participation ofsuspects in the phone hacking activities of Mulcaire. Such emaifshave formed the basis for further lines of enquiry by the policeincluding leading to the identif ication of potential witnesses who arestill to be interviewed. This email data has also formed the basis ofquestions to suspe cts during police interview s and has en abled theidentification of further victims.

(iii) The seizure of various items of property from the susp ects fol lowingarrest has revealed other email activity that appears to support

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current lines of investigation. Some exhibits have revealed evidenceof criminal conduct in addition to the suspec ted phone hac king.

(iv) Detailed forensic work has been carried out by police hi-techinvestigators, resulting in the identification of numerous potentialsou rces of email data. One of these com prises the content of New sInternationals main server prior to 2005, this being material thathad previously been described by the company as beingpermanently deleted. As a result the investigation has last weekbegun the proces s of examining a database of 300,000,000 em ailsusing key word searches. The volume of material necessarilymeans that this process wil l not be comp leted for som e t ime.

40. I recognise that the previous investigation that led to the conviction ofMulcaire and Goodman, and more particularly the steps that they tookthereafter, have been the subject of criticism. My team and I arecommitted to ensuring we carry out our investigations fully andthoroughly and to the best of our abilities in order to regain public trustand confidence. To that end my greatest concern is to ensure thatnothing in this Inquiry prejudices or r isks prejudicing the integrity of myinvestigations.

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Leveson inquiry witness Statement of DAC Sue Akers

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