evidence
More than 300 British journalists stand accused of illegally obtaining information
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BRITAIN’S newspaper industry failed to take up an offer to view evidence that more than 300 journalists had been involved in illegally accessing information, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Christopher Graham, the Commissioner, invited editors to visit his offices in September 2009 to see information about possible criminal acts by their staff, contained in confidential files from an investigation known as “Operation Motorman”.
No newspaper took up the invitation until early last year, when one unnamed publication got in touch with the ICO. Several more newspapers asked to see the files last summer after the Government had announced a public inquiry into malpractice by the press.
The Motorman files named 305 journalists who had commissioned Steve Whittamore, a private investigator, to obtain information including criminal records, mobile phone numbers and “friends and family” numbers. Many of the requests could be fulfilled only by illegally accessing databases, such as the police national computer and DVLA records.
Whittamore pleaded guilty in 2005 to illegally accessing data and trading information with the media.
Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner at the time of the case, told the Leveson inquiry last month that the ICO had been advised that it would be too expensive to prosecute the journalists involved. The journalists could also have tried to use a public interest defence. However, Mr Thomas told the inquiry that the reporters were generally pursuing “celebrity tittle-tattle” rather than genuine investigative journalism.
Mr Graham, who replaced Mr Thomas in June 2009, told the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee in September that year that he was willing to “share with a properly authorised editorial figure in a newspaper group the names on the list”. The ICO believes that newspapers ignored the offer because they were more interested in campaigning against tougher sentences for blagging – obtaining personal data without the consent of its owner – than identifying staff who may have been involved in criminal acts.
The ICO statement conflicts with evidence given to the Leveson inquiry yesterday by a lawyer for Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mail. Liz Hartley said that the ICO had not made evidence from the Motorman files available until last July.
Associated sent two executives and two lawyers to inspect the files in August. The company was by far Mr Whittamore’s biggest customer. The ICO published a table in 2006 showing that 58 Daily Mail journalists had made 952 requests for information. Another 33 Mail on Sunday journalists made 266 requests.
News International, publisher of The Times, was also a significant customer. The News of the World, which closed in July, made 228 requests via 23 journalists. The table shows that a single journalist for The Times made two requests.
Grandma throws toddler 15m for revenge
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A Virginia woman was sentenced Friday to 35 years for throwing her 2-year-old granddaughter off a walkway at a busy shopping mall, a murder the judge called “almost beyond comprehension.”
Carmela dela Rosa, 51, offered a tearful, barely audible apology to her family, saying: “I’m very sorry for what I’ve done.”
Circuit Court Judge Bruce White imposed the full sentence recommended by the jury that convicted her last year. Under Virginia law, White had the option to reduce the sentence to the mandatory minimum of 20 years, but could not go above the jury’s recommendation.
Dela Rosa, a naturalized US citizen born in the Philippines, killed her granddaughter Angelyn Ogdoc at the end of a family outing in November 2010 to Tysons Corner Center.
The evidence at trial showed that she deliberately hung back with Angelyn as the family exited along a nearly 50-foot (15-meter) skywalk connecting the mall to a multi-level parking garage, so she could scoop up Angelyn and toss her over the guardrail without any interference from her family.
In a videotaped confession, dela Rosa told police she killed Angelyn to get back at her son-in-law for getting her daughter pregnant out of wedlock and ruining her daughter’s opportunities for a better life.
Dela Rosa’s lawyer, public defender Dawn Butorac, argued unsuccessfully that dela Rosa’s mental illness severe depression rendered her legally insane and unable to appreciate the consequences of her actions or understand right from wrong.
Butorac said she will appeal the verdict, and that she believes the jury did not fully appreciate the depth of dela Rosa’s depression, which had gotten worse in the year before the murder and led her to attempt suicide on multiple occasions.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said that while it may be more comforting to believe that a grandmother must be crazy to kill her grandchild in such a brutal manner, the evidence showed that dela Rosa was a hateful, spiteful, jealous woman who harbored animosity not only against her son-in-law but also at Angelyn herself for stealing attention away from dela Rosa. She admitted exactly that during her videotaped confession.
2 men found guilty in UK black teen’s murder
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LONDON—In a case that exposed racism and incompetence in Scotland Yard and took nearly two decades to bring anyone to justice, a jury found two men guilty Tuesday of brutally stabbing a black teenager to death.
Gary Dobson, 36, and David Norris, 35, were convicted of killing 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence as he waited for a night bus in southeast London in 1993. The pair will be sentenced Wednesday and face life in prison.
“Had the police done their job properly, I would have spent the last 18 years grieving for my son rather than fighting to get his killers to court,” said Lawrence’s mother, Doreen, who said Tuesday’s verdict was tinged with sadness.
The investigation—which has seen multiple court appearances by suspects over the years but no convictions until now—led to strong criticism of London’s Metropolitan Police and resulted in an investigation that found the force was “institutionally racist” and had bungled evidence-gathering. It also led to a change in Britain’s double jeopardy rules.
It has been one of the most notorious unsolved murder cases in Scotland Yard’s recent history—and police admit the investigation isn’t over yet.
Lawrence, who had wanted to study architecture, was stabbed twice and bled to death as he stood at a bus stop with his friend Duwayne Brooks. He was attacked by a gang of youths and police say they believe others were involved in the stabbing.
“I do not think I’ll be able to rest until they are all brought to justice,” Lawrence’s father Neville said in a statement read out by his lawyer after the verdict.
Arrests weren’t made until two weeks after the murder. Then—in 1996—three of the suspects—Neil Acourt, Luke Knight and Dobson—were acquitted.
Tireless campaigning from Lawrence’s family—and a change of government in 1997—helped keep the case alive, with Britain’s left-leaning Labour Party commissioning a public inquiry into the murder and the police investigation.
The resulting report, written by William Macpherson, found that the police were “institutionally racist” and had failed to investigate Lawrence’s murder carefully because he was black.
The Macpherson report led to a sea change in British race relations—and breathed new life into the prosecution after authorities relaxed England’s rules on double jeopardy, which say that a person cleared of a crime cannot be retried for the same offense.
Still, obstacles remained.
In 2004, prosecutors announced there was “insufficient evidence” to pursue anyone for the murder amid allegations of police corruption.
But new forensic evidence uncovered in 2007 helped save the case.
Scientists subjected the evidence to months of careful tests, retrieving fibers from clothing taken from the suspects. They found a single hair matching Lawrence’s DNA and a microscopic blood stain invisible to the naked eye.
In 2011, a new trial was set up at London’s Central Criminal Court. British Prime Minister David Cameron said Tuesday he hoped the conviction would offer some comfort to Lawrence’s family.
He said the verdict would not “ease the pain of losing a son, but … I hope that it brings at least some comfort after their years of struggle.”
Labour leader Ed Miliband said he believed the Lawrence case would leave a powerful legacy for Britain.
“The murder of Stephen Lawrence was not only a tragedy for a talented young man and his family, it was a wake-up call to all of us who believe Britain is and always must be a country where everyone is shown respect irrespective of race, culture or faith.”
Dobson and Norris had both denied the charges. After the verdict, Dobson said as he was leaving the court: “You have condemned an innocent man here, I hope you can live with yourselves.”
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