LONDON—British prosecutors said Friday they will no longer
pursue cases stemming from the police's long-running investigations
into alleged phone hacking by journalists, bringing to an end a
contentious chapter in U.K. public life.
No further action will be taken against News Corp's British
newspapers or 10 individuals at the rival Trinity Mirror group, the
Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement. Police had been
investigating phone hacking generally for nearly nine years, but
intensified their efforts in 2011 amid a series of wide-ranging
public inquiries into the ethics of newsgathering methods by the
British press.
Those inquiries, one by lawmakers and another by a senior judge,
were initially sparked by revelations that some reporters had
unlawfully accessed messages left on the cellphones of celebrities
and public figures.
"After a thorough analysis, we have decided there is
insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a
conviction and therefore no further action will be taken in any of
these cases," said the nation's top prosecutor, Alison
Saunders.
In a statement, News Corp's British newspaper unit, News UK,
said it welcomed the decision not to prosecute the company.
"Long ago, we apologised for the conduct that occurred,
immediately took steps to pay compensation to those affected, and
updated and instituted substantial reforms in our business to
ensure our governance is second to none," the statement said.
"Following a thorough and exhaustive investigation, and after many
long trials, enquiries and proceedings, this matter has been
concluded and the right decision has been taken."
A spokeswoman for News Corp, the publisher of The Wall Street
Journal, said the company had nothing to add beyond what News UK
said in its statement.
Trinity Mirror said it had been informed that the criminal
investigation into the alleged phone hacking had concluded and that
no further action would be taken against the company. A spokeswoman
for the company declined to comment further.
The decision not to bring corporate wrongdoing charges against
News Corp's British newspapers marks the final act of the
wide-ranging probe that yielded 12 prosecutions, nine convictions,
and three acquittals.
Among those cleared by jurors was Rebekah Brooks, a top News
International executive who went on trial in late 2013 alongside
other figures from the company's U.K. newspaper subsidiary. While
the eight-month court battle captured the public imagination and
shone a spotlight on practices at several British newspapers,
prosecutors were left with little to show for the effort.
Ms. Brooks, who pleaded not guilty, was acquitted of all
charges, including phone hacking, bribery and two counts of
obstruction of justice.
Of the four defendants on trial alongside Ms. Brooks, the only
one convicted was former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who
was found guilty of conspiring to intercept voice-mail messages and
sentenced to 18 months in prison.
News Corp closed the News of the World tabloid in 2011 amid a
public uproar following disclosures that journalists at the paper
in 2002 had hacked the phone of British teenager Milly Dowler, who
was later found murdered.
On Friday, prosecutors said the decision not to bring charges
against News Corp's British newspapers stemmed in part from a lack
of evidence connecting any executives more senior than Mr. Coulson
to the alleged phone hacking. In British law, for a corporate
wrongdoing charge to stick, it must be proved that any alleged
malfeasance came at the direction of those at the very top of an
organization.
"We are satisfied that corporate criminal liability cannot be
attributed to the company through the actions of Andy Coulson as he
cannot be considered to have been the 'controlling mind and will'
of News Group Newspapers," said prosecutors.
Evidence gleaned from a separate police operation investigating
10 individuals for alleged phone hacking at titles owned by Mirror
Group Newspapers has been shelved, said prosecutors.
One ex-Mirror Group journalist, Graham Johnson, an investigative
reporter for the group's Sunday Mirror title, was convicted of
illegally intercepting voice mails in a trial late last year.
Former CNN talk-show host Piers Morgan, who edited the company's
Daily Mirror tabloid from 1995 to 2004, was questioned in April by
police as part of the investigation, dubbed Operation Golding.
A series of posts from Mr. Morgan's official Twitter account
said he had been told by prosecutors on Friday that no further
action would be taken against him in respect of the police's phone
hacking investigation.
"As I've said since the investigation began four years ago, I've
never hacked a phone nor have I ever told anybody to hack a phone,"
said one of the posts from Mr. Morgan's Twitter account.
London's Metropolitan Police force, which has led the criminal
investigations, said it acknowledges and accepts the Crown
Prosecution Service decision. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman confirmed
that the force's investigation into phone hacking had now
concluded.
Write to Alexis Flynn at alexis.flynn@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 11, 2015 13:05 ET (18:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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