Post date: Jul 21, 2011 12:39:49 PM
The private investigator at the heart of the British phone hacking scandal that's rocked Rupert Murdoch's media empire declines to comment further on his dealings with News Corp staff, but says his situation is "fluid".
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM ITN - The private investigator at the centre of the phone hacking scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch's media operation, and the British police and political establishments, said on Thursday (July 21) he was in a "very changing situation".
Glenn Mulcaire was talking to journalists after British media reports that News International, News Corp's UK arm, had terminated an arrangement to pay the investigator's legal fees, triggering media speculations he may reveal names of people involved.
"Well, as you can appreciate, we are in the middle of a number of inquiries at the moment and it's a very fluid and developing situation. And… Like I said, the developments have been different from day to day and I have no further comment to make at this stage. However, this may change," he said.
The investigator answered two further questions during the short exchange with journalists, in which he said the situation was changing and, while he could not, "make any further comment this stage… like I stress, that will change."
Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for intercepting voicemails used by royal aides for the now defunct Murdoch title, the News of the World. The paper's royal editor Clive Goodman was also imprisoned for the same charge of conspiracy to access the aides' phone messages.
The News of the World's methods were first scrutinized by police in 2005.
Until April this year, the newspaper maintained the hacking was limited to Goodman.
London's Metropolitan Police saw the resignation, earlier this month, of its senior officer and a deputy following criticism that they had not reopened the investigation after a newspaper reports of more widespread hacking was published in 2009.
A fresh investigation called Operation Weeting was launched earlier in July after further information was received from News International.
Detectives say up to 4,000 phones could have been hacked, included that of a murdered school, soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and public figures, including the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown.
British media reports Mulcaire is presently fighting a string of ongoing phone-hacking lawsuits.
Senior News Corp and News International staff have resigned, with one arrested in connection with the investigation and Murdoch has apologised to phone hacking victims, including one statement delivered at the British parliament.
British Prime Minister David Cameron this week faced questions over his links with News International staff and a now withdrawn News Corp bid for BSkyB, during an emergency debate in parliament.