The former deputy head of the UK’s data protection authority refused to pursue newspapers over the illegal purchase of confidential information, the Leveson Inquiry heard today.
Francis Aldhouse said the media groups were “too big” for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to take on despite a clear paper trail connecting them to the practice, the press standards inquiry was told.
Alec Owens, who was the ICO’s senior investigating officer from 1999 until 2005, said he urged Mr Aldhouse and then-information commissioner Richard Thomas to go after the papers.
He told the inquiry: “I said, ‘we can go for everybody from the blagger right up to the newspaper’. At which point there was a look of horror on Mr Aldhouse’s face, and he said, ‘we can’t take them on, they’re too big for us’.
“Mr Thomas, sort of bemused, deep in thought, just said, ‘fine, thank you very much Alec, pass my compliments on and congratulations to the team from me, job well done’.”
Evidence of the illegal access of private data was recovered in a raid on the Hampshire home of private investigator Steve Whittamore on March 8th, 2003, the inquiry also heard.
ICO investigators found what was later described as a “Pandora’s box” of information, including checks on criminal records, vehicle registration details, ex-directory phone numbers and mobile phone numbers.
They seized four A4 notebooks compiled by Whittamore, which contained about 17,500 entries listing names of newspapers and reporters and the information they had requested.
Mr Owens, a former Merseyside Police detective inspector, said: “We had a paper chain right the way up and down.” Whittamore admitted his own involvement in the illegality but refused to implicate any journalists, the inquiry heard.
Mr Owens said: “He didn’t say anything then formally, but he indicated that he wouldn’t deny his wrongdoing, but please don’t ask him about the press because he’s not going to say anything about them.”
Whittamore was convicted in 2005 of illegally accessing data and passing it to journalists.
Earlier, the inquiry heard Alastair Campbell wrongly accused Cherie Blair's lifestyle consultant of tipping off newspapers about the movements of the former prime minister's wife.
Tony Blair's former communications director said he had apologised to Carole Caplin, who has been told by police that her mobile phone was hacked by the News of the World.
Mr Campbell told the inquiry into press standards that he often wondered how stories got out about Mrs Blair when she was living in Downing Street.
He said he believed a story about Mrs Blair's pregnancy printed by the Daily Mirror in 1999 could have been obtained by phone hacking.
"During various periods of the time that we were in government, we were very, very concerned about how many stories about Cherie and Carole Caplin were getting out to different parts of the media," he said.
"I had no idea how they were getting out. In relation to not just Carole, and not just Cherie, but all of us who were involved in the government at that time, all sorts of stuff got out.
"I did, at times, directly accuse Carole Caplin of tipping off newspapers about what she was up to. I have since apologised because I now realise I was completely wrong," Mr Campbell said.
He told the inquiry Ms Caplin said she was happy to write a letter to the inquiry giving more details.
PA