Brown’s calls have come as new data has emerged concerning the 2011 episode by litigation filed by Prince Harry, King Charles III’s youthful son, towards Murdoch’s Information Group Newspapers (NGN), the writer of the Solar and Information of the World, which was shuttered in 2011.
In a letter dated June 19, 2024, that was first reported by the Guardian newspaper and seen by The Submit on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley wrote that a “particular enquiry group” is inspecting Brown’s allegations that the corporate was concerned in a coverup by deleting tens of millions of emails throughout a police investigation.
“The problems you increase are complicated and can take time to think about towards investigations which have already taken place,” Rowley wrote.
Lewis has denied wrongdoing. On Wednesday, he declined to remark by a Submit spokeswoman.
Victims of the cellphone hacking declare the e-mail deletions had been a part of an effort to cowl up executives’ consciousness that Murdoch journalists had illegally obtained voicemails of 1000’s of individuals, together with politicians, royals and even a murdered teenager. The corporate has spent a reported $1.5 billion to settle greater than a thousand phone-hacking claims, with settlements persevering with into this yr.
Murdoch’s firm has mentioned in courtroom filings that the corporate’s emails conformed with a data-retention coverage and had been deleted for “industrial, IT and sensible causes” and never as a part of a plan to hide proof. An organization spokeswoman has additionally famous that British prosecutors beforehand examined the e-mail deletion problem and declined to pursue prison expenses.
“It’s strongly denied that Information Worldwide [NI] sought to impede or worse conceal proof from the MPS investigation,” mentioned a spokeswoman for Murdoch’s U.Ok. publishing firm, now referred to as Information UK, on Wednesday. “These issues have already been the topic of appreciable scrutiny within the prison circumstances.”
Brown, who has mentioned he believes his cellphone might have been hacked, has mentioned new data has been revealed by Prince Harry’s lawsuit, together with that Lewis informed police in 2011 that there was a menace from an inside mole that impacted how the corporate dealt with emails on the time, based on paperwork submitted to courtroom this week and beforehand reported by The Submit. Lewis mentioned the corporate feared the alleged leaker was relaying data from the e-mail account of Brooks to Brown and Tom Watson, the previous deputy chief of the Labour Celebration.
The Information UK spokeswoman mentioned Brown’s allegations had been “not new and have fashioned a part of the civil litigation for a few years.”
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police informed The Submit on Wednesday that Brown’s allegations proceed “to be assessed and we shall be writing once more to replace him on the doubtless timescales concerned in that work.”
The Guardian on Wednesday printed an opinion piece from Brown wherein he accused Lewis of being engaged in a “full fabrication.”
“I’ve solely just lately found how Lewis tried to accuse me of a criminal offense I didn’t commit,” he wrote.
“Blazoned throughout the highest of each version of The Washington Submit is the assertion ‘Democracy dies in darkness,’” Brown mentioned. “However what if the writer himself is a grasp of the darkish arts?”
A spokeswoman for Information UK mentioned Brown had seen “partial data” and was making an attempt to influence the police to take sides in an ongoing civil case wherein he isn’t a celebration.
Lewis, who took over on the Murdoch firm because it was reeling from the phone-hacking scandal and helped handle its response, just isn’t a defendant within the ongoing civil case introduced by Prince Harry and different alleged phone-hacking victims. However a decide dominated in Could that plaintiffs can air allegations that Lewis and others aided within the concealment and destruction of proof associated to the scandal.
Questions on how Lewis dealt with the episode deepened after experiences in June that he sought to discourage The Submit from overlaying developments within the civil case, an allegation he has denied.
The civil case is schedule to go to trial in London in January. At a pre-trial listening to on the London Excessive Court docket this week attorneys for Harry and different plaintiffs claimed that Lewis and different executives concocted a “pretend safety menace” involving Brown and Watson that plaintiffs allege was used to justify “the deletion of tens of millions of incriminating emails.”
Murdoch’s U.Ok. media firm agreed in courtroom to conduct a brand new seek for paperwork linked to Lewis and others that will relate to the safety menace, a reminder that Lewis will face continued scrutiny within the case in coming months.
Paperwork beforehand reported by The Submit present that in a July 8, 2011, assembly, Lewis informed the London Metropolitan Police that the potential existence of a leaker “added to our anxieties” about learn how to deal with emails, however the firm ultimately didn’t discover proof that the plot existed.
Anthony Hudson, a lawyer for NGN, informed the Excessive Court docket that the safety menace was “believed to be real,” and the corporate has denied it was the rationale that some 30 million emails had been deleted. 9 million had been by no means recovered.
Greg Miller contributed to this report.
