Child Advocate's Phone May Have Been Hacked

The mother of a murdered child who became the face of a News of the World campaign to change British sex-offender laws said she may have had her voice mails hacked by the tabloid, a development that is likely to generate more scrutiny for Rebekah Brooks, the former executive who edited the tabloid at the time.


Former News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks (then Rebekah Wade), left, stands next to Sara Payne, the mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah. Ms. Brooks as editor of the News of the World was a high profile supporter of a law proposed by Payne to make public the whereabouts of sex offenders.

Sara Payne, in a prepared statement, said Thursday that police had found her details on a list seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the now-closed News of the World and intercepted mobile-phone voice mails. Ms. Payne is the mother of Sarah Payne, an 8-year-old British girl who was abducted and murdered in July 2000 by a man who had a previous conviction for abduction and sexual assault against a child.

The statement poses a new issue for Ms. Brooks, the former executive who edited the tabloid at the time. As editor of News Corp.'s News of the World from May 2000 to January 2003, Ms. Brooks made Ms. Payne's daughter— Sarah— the face of a campaign to change British sex-offender-registry laws.

It is unclear whether Ms. Payne's phone was, in fact, hacked. The police squad investigating phone hacking by the News of the World has been informing potential victims upon finding their details in Mr. Mulcaire's notes. But the squad sometimes doesn't have further evidence to show Mr. Mulcaire actually dialed in to intercept their voice mails.

"These allegations are abhorrent and particularly upsetting as Sara Payne is a dear friend," Ms. Brooks said in a statement. "The idea that anyone on the newspaper knew that Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mr. Mulcaire is unthinkable. The idea of her being targeted is beyond my comprehension."

Ms. Brooks has consistently denied knowledge of phone-hacking at the tabloid.

The News of the World had provided Ms. Payne with a mobile phone for the past 11 years, so she could stay in touch during the campaign for Sarah's Law, Ms. Brooks said in a statement. "It was not a personal gift."

It is unclear whether police found the details of that phone, or another one, in Mr. Mulcaire's notes.

News International declined to comment.

The Metropolitan Police declined to comment.

At a parliamentary committee hearing last week, Ms. Brooks cited the "Sarah's Law" campaign as an example of the good works the tabloid performed.

Ms. Brooks on July 15 resigned as chief executive officer of News International, News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit, and was subsequently arrested in connection with a police probe into phone hacking. She was released and hasn't been charged.

News Corp. closed the paper earlier this month. News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.

"Sara is absolutely devastated by this news, we're all deeply disappointed and are just working to get her through it," Ms. Payne's organization, Phoenix Chief Advocates, said in a statement. "Sara will continue to work with the proper authorities regarding this matter."

Ms. Brooks said in a testimony earlier this month that she had never met or heard of Mr. Mulcaire, the private investigator, until he was convicted in 2006 for phone hacking alongside former News of the World royals correspondent Clive Goodman. Messrs. Mulcaire and Goodman served six and four months in jail, respectively.

In the aftermath of Sarah Payne's murder, the News of the World, and in particular Ms. Brooks, pushed for tighter supervision of sex offenders and led a controversial campaign to "name and shame" alleged pedophiles. The outcome was the adoption of Britain's Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, often called "Sarah's Law," which has allowed parents to check if someone with regular unsupervised access to their child poses a risk.

"In the main, my use of private investigators while I was editor of the News of the World was purely legitimate and in pursuit in the main, as you know, of the addresses and whereabouts of convicted paedophiles through Sarah's Law," Ms. Brooks said in a testimony earlier this month. "That is my majority—if not almost my exclusive—use of private investigators."

Sarah Payne's mother Sara was befriended by senior News of the World journalists, who visited her in the hospital at one point and attended both her parents' funerals.

When the News of the World was closed earlier this month, Sara Payne wrote a valedictory article praising the paper as a "force for good" and "an old friend."

In the article, she mentioned that after it was alleged that News of the World journalists had intercepted Milly Dowler's voicemails, there were rumours that her phone, too, had been hacked – but these had turned out to be "untrue."

The statement Thursday night corrected that, saying that police initially thought Ms. Payne's name was not on Mr. Mulcaire's list, but then later realized it was.

The scandal has been simmering for years but flared earlier this month after allegations surfaced that the News of the World had intercepted voice mails of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old British girl who was murdered in 2002. The crisis has led to the resignation of top executives, the closure of the 168-year old tabloid and the collapse of a multi-billion-dollar deal to take full control of pay-TV giant British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC.