Police who took 5 years and £40m to convict a total of 11 journalists get 50 AWARDS
FIFTY police officers have been given awards for their work on the controversial £40million investigations into phone hacking and bribery, which resulted in dozens of journalists being arrested but just 11 convicted.
The Metropolitan Police awarded the commendations despite heavy criticism of the way they handled the cases. Scotland Yard’s Assistant Commissioner Pat Gallan gave out the certificates during a special ceremony last month.
Detectives and senior officers were thanked for their hard work on the cases sparked by the scandal at the News of the World five years ago. The police investigation finally ended earlier this year.
But one journalist cleared by a jury of hacking called the awards a disgrace. Former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis, who was left on bail for nearly two years, said: ‘I would hope most of those officers would have been embarrassed to be caught up in an obvious stunt by the Met to justify its ludicrous waste of resources.
‘They had hundreds of officers on this for years, neglecting other crimes, and destroyed the lives and careers of many innocent people.’
The Met first faced criticism over phone hacking almost a decade ago when News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for accessing the voicemails of members of the Royal Family – but senior figures on the tabloid were not arrested.
After a host of celebrities sued, executives handed over millions of staff emails and memos to police, giving them the evidence to launch a massive new probe in 2011.
At one stage, 90 officers were working on the investigation, called Operation Weeting. They looked into more than 6,000 people who had their mobiles hacked, including Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller.
The News of the World was closed when it emerged reporters had accessed voicemail left for murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, and as the scandal grew David Cameron established the £5million Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.
In total, 41 people were arrested under Weeting but after trials costing an estimated £100million, former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks was cleared, although eight journalists were convicted, including her successor – and one-time lover – Andy Coulson. He was jailed for 18 months. The Met faced widespread condemnation for the separate Operation Elveden, which looked into public officials who had been paid for information by tabloids.
It cost an estimated £15 million and led to 90 arrests but of all the journalists brought to trial, only two were convicted as juries ruled their stories had been in the public interest. There were 34 convictions, mostly of prison guards and police officers who had sold information.
Another case looking at computer hacking, Operation Tuleta, cost £4million but only led to two convictions, one of whom was a journalist.
A Met spokesman said: ‘There was a commendation ceremony recognising the dedication and professionalism of officers working for up to five years on a number of complex and pressurised cases.’