London: British police on Monday said there were
829 likely victims of phone-hacking by newspapers, including
Rupert Murdoch`s now closed tabloid, News of the World.
Sue Akers, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police, in charge of investigations into phone-
hacking, confirmed to the Leveson Inquiry that 581 of 829
victims had been contacted, but 231 could not be identified,
and 17 had not been told due to "operational reasons".
It was previously reported that the potential victims of
phone-hacking were 742, of whom nearly 50 had reached out-of-
court settlements with Murdoch`s News International, which
paid substantial amounts as compensation in January.
Akers, who is overseeing three investigations into
phone-hacking and related issues, said so far, 17 people had
been arrested, with two released without any action, and the
remaining 15 due to answer bail in March.
Deposing before the Leveson Inquiry, Akers said the
victims of phone-hacking included individuals those whose
names and other details figure in documents belonging to the
former private detective employed by the News of the World,
Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed in January 2007 for phone
hacking.
Akers said that Operation Elveden, which is looking into
payments to the police by journalists for information, is to
be expanded by 50 per cent after four past and present Sun
journalists were arrested just over a week ago.
She said that the Elveden inquiry into alleged illegal
payments by newspapers was important because "if the public
think that information is being leaked by police officers to
journalists then it is inevitable that public confidence is
eroded".
She added that there was "very legitimate public
interest in investigating this".
PTI
