Well we did not need some Twitterposter to see this one coming, did we Di! I first posted about this thug back in March.
xxx
John Yates: 'My phone was hacked'
John Yates: 'My phone was hacked'
The Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, John Yates, has told MPs he believes his own phone was hacked during a period when journalists were being investigated for the malpractice.
Speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee, he explained he discovered the hacking himself.
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What about "Operation Yates that lasted a day". Fab!He says "records no longer exist", how convenient.
John Yates resigns from Met police over phone-hacking scandal
Scotland Yard's top counter-terrorism officer quits the day after his boss Sir Paul Stephenson
John Yates, assistant Metropolitan police commissioner, has quit over the phone-hacking scandal. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images
The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner John Yates has become the second high-profile Scotland Yard officer to resign over the phone-hacking scandal.
The resignation of Yates – the country's top counter-terrorism officer – comes a day after his boss, the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, stepped down.
In a statement, Scotland Yard said: "Assistant commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). This has been accepted. AC Yates will make a statement later this afternoon."
His decision to quit came as the Metropolitan Police Authority's professional standards cases subcommittee held a meeting to consider a slew of complaints against him.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the resignations of Yates and Stephenson were "regrettable but right". He said: "Whatever mistakes have been made at any level in the police service, now is the time to clear them up."
The MPA disciplinary committee, which met on Monday morning, announced that it had decided to suspend Yates pending an inquiry into allegations following the phone-hacking scandal.
Cressida Dick would replace Yates in the interim, Johnson said.
Green party MPA member Jenny Jones said the resignation should have happened earlier and left Johnson with a lot to explain.
"I think it's a real pity Yates did not go before his boss," she said. "It just shows who the most honourable person is. Boris has mishandled this from the start and he obviously has lots of questions to answer."
Earlier on Monday it emerged that Yates had been recalled to give evidence before the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the committee, said: "The committee has recalled Mr Yates to give evidence tomorrow to clarify aspects of his evidence that he gave to the committee last week and following the statement of Sir Paul Stephenson."
When he appeared before the select committee last Tuesday, Yates expressed regret at his 2009 decision not to reopen the phone-hacking investigation. He insisted he had always told the truth to MPs investigating the issue and suggested that the News of the World "failed to co-operate" with police until the start of this year.
He told the committee: "I can assure you all that I have never lied and all the information that I've provided to this committee has been given in good faith.
"It is a matter of great concern that, for whatever reason, the News of the World appears to have failed to co-operate in the way that we now know they should have with the relevant police inquiries up until January of this year.
"They have only recently supplied information and evidence that would clearly have had a significant impact on the decisions that I took in 2009 had it been provided to us."
Vaz told Yates that his evidence was unconvincing and warned him it was "not the end of the matter".
18 July 2011 Last updated at 15:49
Assistant Commissioner John Yates decided not to re-open the phone-hacking investigation in 2009
John Yates quits Met Police amid phone-hacking scandal
Assistant Commissioner John Yates decided not to re-open the phone-hacking investigation in 2009Met Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates has quit after growing pressure amid the phone-hacking scandal.
Mr Yates checked the credentials of Neil Wallis before the Met employed the former News of the World executive, arrested last week over hacking claims.
Mr Yates's decision to resign came after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson quit on Sunday.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson said it was right for both Sir Paul and Mr Yates to stand down.
Mr Johnson told a news conference at City Hall in London: "I believe that both decisions are regrettable but I would say that in both cases the right call has been made.
"There is absolutely nothing that has been proven against the probity or the professionalism of either man.
"But in both cases we have to recognise that the nexus of questions about the relationship between the Met and the News of the World was likely to be distracting to both officers in the run-up to the Olympic Games."
Mr Johnson said Deputy Commissioner Tim Godwin would be in charge at Scotland Yard until Sir Paul's replacement was appointed.
In other developments on Monday:
- David Cameron said the Commons would be recalled on Wednesday to debate the latest developments in the phone-hacking scandal
- Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks confirmed she would appear before a committee of MPs on Tuesday, alongside Rupert and James Murdoch, despite her arrest and questioning by police on Sunday
- The Serious Fraud Office said it would give "full consideration" to a request by Labour MP Tom Watson to investigate out-of-court settlements made to hacking victims
- Shares in News Corporation dropped by 7.6% to a two-year low in trading in Australia
- Press Association reporter Laura Elston, 34, who was arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking by journalists, will face no further action, her lawyer said
Mr Wallis, a former NoW deputy editor, was arrested and released on bail on Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications.
The resignation of Sir Paul, the most senior policeman in Britain, came after he faced criticism for the recruitment of Mr Wallis as a PR consultant.
Mr Yates told Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) chairman Kit Malthouse that he was standing down.
Scotland Yard said in a statement: "Assistant Commissioner John Yates has this afternoon indicated his intention to resign to the chair of the MPA.
"This has been accepted. AC Yates will make a statement later this afternoon."
Mr Yates's resignation came after he was informed he would be suspended pending an inquiry into his relationship with Mr Wallis.
The officer had been confronted with new information about the friendship between the two men, sources told BBC political editor Nick Robinson.
'Gratitude'
After a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority's professional standards committee, the MPA said in a statement: "The committee considered allegations concerning Assistant Commissioner John Yates and after lengthy and careful deliberations decided to suspend the assistant commissioner.
"Suspension is not a disciplinary sanction and it is emphasised that suspension should not be taken as a presumption of guilt. Assistant Commissioner Yates has been informed of this decision.
"A number of matters have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, including one involving Assistant Commissioner Yates."
Home Secretary Theresa May said: "I have been informed that Assistant Commissioner John Yates has tended his resignation.
"I want to put on record my gratitude to John Yates for the work he has done while I have been home secretary to develop and improve counter-terrorism policing in London and indeed across the UK."
22 comments:
This is simple I think, this man is a tory and he is covering up for Murdoch, the News of the World and the party he is faithfull to, the conservatives. In this announcement he picks out one figure and chooses to specifically deny there is any evidence, John Prescott. Of course a very colourful Labour man where digging would like find something printable for those who want to discredit the Labour Party. He punches people, he bonks his aid etc. Well John Major was bonking Edwina Curry and was recorded on BBC I think calling those who plotted against him in his won party a load of slimy bastards. None of this actually changes whether they can do the job or not does it?
Or that Yates, as a very senior officer in the Met was a corrupt liar who tax payers were stumping up a fortune to keep in his job, lying for the tories and covering up the sleazy conduct they engage in with their newspaper friends like Murdoch to win elections. Now who said America was bad? It is not different in the UK. YOu do not win on the merits, you win on the bribes and corruption you can arrange. That is why Gordon Brown lost. Murdoch can up the anti against him, including with the most incredible filth which I find upsetting and unprintable, but that does not change the fact he is a decent man who was not prepared to engage in all of this.
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Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates said there is no new evidence to warrant further investigation into claims that a huge mobile phone hacking operation was launched by the News of the World.
It follows the jailing in 2007 of the paper's royal reporter Clive Goodman for hacking into the phones of members of the royal family's household.
This clip was first broadcast on 9 July 2009.
The McCanns did not get into bed with Gordon Brown, that is just what the spin tells us.
They got into bed with those who care more about money than anything else, the conservatives and it is them that are currently getting the mauling as all of this comes out. I continue to hope that means the McCanns do now go silent because they know they have come to the end of the road. And in that case, could this finish David Cameron who has been such a loyal mate to this corrupt lot and used them to suit his own ends, knowing full well the full extent of what they get up to? Yes.
I am not sure there was anything wrong with Stephenson but he was in command and therefore has to take the fall. I hope that Theresa May does now do the decent thing and appoint someone the public can respect and trust for both of these top jobs at London to replace him and Yates. But of course she may be tempted to pick those who like the conservatives. Even so, I just get the distinct feeling she really cannot stand Kate and Gerry McCann and does think it will be good for business to put them where they belong.
or jump before we push you Mr Yates, he took his time!
His decision to quit came as the Metropolitan Police Authority's professional standards cases subcommittee held a meeting to consider a slew of complaints against him.
The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the resignations of Yates and Stephenson were "regrettable but right". He said: "Whatever mistakes have been made at any level in the police service, now is the time to clear them up."
The MPA disciplinary committee, which met on Monday morning, announced that it had decided to suspend Yates pending an inquiry into allegations following the phone-hacking scandal.
Cressida Dick would replace Yates in the interim, Johnson said.
Green party MPA member Jenny Jones said the resignation should have happened earlier and left Johnson with a lot to explain.
"I think it's a real pity Yates did not go before his boss," she said. "It just shows who the most honourable person is. Boris has mishandled this from the start and he obviously has lots of questions to answer."
Earlier on Monday it emerged that Yates had been recalled to give evidence before the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday.
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the committee, said: "The committee has recalled Mr Yates to give evidence tomorrow to clarify aspects of his evidence that he gave to the committee last week and following the statement of Sir Paul Stephenson."
I now get the real significance of the question Labour MP Keith Vaz puts to Yates, can you confirm that YOU HAVE NOT BEEN HACKED?
He means you have not been hacked because you are a tory.
But ever the Gerry type smart arse Yates claims he knows from what he knows about mobiles that he was hacked but aha the records no longer exist. What a corrupt rotten liar. Sue me if you like, Mr Yates!
I am delighted that Cressida Dick will at least be temporarily in charge. God help the corrupt ones!
xx
Keith Vaz is just sublimely sarcastic and mocking with this character but always retains that posh polite tone.
I love it!
And he is recalled for a bit more.
I bet Mr Vaz just cannot wait!!
Giving that job to Mr Coulson can only be explained in terms of repaying a favour to Murdoch, Bye Mr Cameron, you really should have listened to the warnings from the Labour Party that your relationship with News International was "unhealthy" xx
David Cameron flew abroad last night for a long-arranged trip to Africa leaving behind the carnage inside Britain's most important police force, tumult inside the news organisation with which he has closest links, and open disdain from his deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, over his appointment of Andy Coulson to No 10.
The in-flight entertainment will have to be very good to calm his mood.
Aides in Downing Street contacted the prime minister's Virgin plane en route from Heathrow to South Africa just shortly before Sir Paul Stephenson announced he was stepping down as the UK's most senior police officer.
Downing Street aides, who had at one point considered cancelling the trip altogether at the height of the phone-hacking crisis last week, instead decided to cut it back from the planned four days to two.
Cameron – who flew out with 25 business leaders including Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond – will now just visit South Africa and Nigeria on Tuesday. Plans to visit Rwanda and Sudan have been scrapped.
Time has been found in the diary to allow No 10 aides – and possibly the prime minister – to watch the appearance by Rupert and James Murdoch tomorrow in front of MPs on a parliamentary select committee.
Cameron may also find time to reflect that his attempt last Friday to get a grip of the situation by announcing a judicial inquiry has clearly failed. The number of dead bodies on the stage is beginning to resemble the final scene of a Shakespearian tragedy.
The "firestorm" he himself described is still raging, and as the body count rises in the form of arrests or resignations, he looks increasingly exposed.
Every day as the crisis continues, his judgment, and that of the chancellor, George Osborne, in appointing the former editor of the News of the World Andy Coulson as his director of communications looks increasingly inexplicable.
It cannot help that the leader of the opposition, previously a politically ponderous flea of no consequence, has suddenly morphed into a fast-moving deadly bee.
Ed Miliband will be back on the attack, framing the crisis in terms of his call for a new responsibility agenda in which the old status quo is over.
The problems Cameron faces come from all directions. First, he appears to be facing the thinly-disguised wrath of a Met commissioner angry that he is being accused of an improperly contractual relationship with Neil Wallis, a former News of the World deputy editor, when the prime minister arguably insisted on an even less appropriate relationship with Coulson.
Moreover, Stephenson was implying, possibly for self-serving reasons, that he could not impart operational information to Cameron since he was too compromised with the chief suspects.
Secondly there is no evidence that the Conservative party either in the Home Office or in the London mayoralty of Boris Johnson took seriously the suggestion, repeatedly raised by Labour, that the connections between News International and the Met were unhealthy.
Cameron is such an idiot that up until very recently he was probably thinking how he could employ Rebekah Brooks.
I think it will take all of the wiles of Theresa May to save him, but she may just vote for someone else to save the party.
She knows that arresting the McCanns would be a really smart move. Bad luck McCanns, no Portuguese investigation of strangers for you!
I think this case is really about political power and the tories hunger to get back in power, for that they needed Murky Murdoch.
But the McCanns will be used to solve the problems for the tories IMO. Sacrificial lambs. So long as they get done I doubt the public care about why.
See how Mr Yates uses the expansive body languages hand gesticulating and spreading ever wider as he is creating a line. Then when it is delivered hands go back to front on the desk, ah, that shut him up he thinks, I am too clever for Keith Vaz, I can "rebut" anything he says.
Erm tut Mr Yates, you are so like Gerry !
Hi Viv,
I’m in my element following this story. As you may have gathered I am not a Tory supporter. It fills me with joy to think this ‘hacking scandal’ might, just might bring down Cameron. Perhaps I am being too optimistic but at least I can relish and savour the thought for the time being.
All these characters imo not only ‘hiss in the same pot’ but share the same bed!
Hello Wiz
I feel sorry for our Di because things are not going at all well for the dirty mac brigade.
Four top coppers are to be investigated, we know that Stephenson and Yates are two of them, how much do you wanna bet with me dodgy geezer Hayman is another?
You are right they are all in the same bed, it is mind boggling and I struggle to get my head around it, talk about an incestuous family. Yates got a job for the daughter of the former assistant editor that Stephenson appointed....as media adviser to the Met and the Mucks are right in the thick of it that is for sure. Someone gave me a Freudian bit of inspiration about that lol!
I am now seriously thinking this is so massive it is going to bring down Smarmy Cameron who gets his private letters to the Mucks published in the Super Sun.
You could not make it up.
I am going to Morrisons to mindlessly unwind from this, looking at potted plants, potatoes, lumps of nice steak, bottles of milk, you know just nice simple wholesome things, no intrigue!
Cressida Dick has taken over from Yates, oh read it and weep Gerry, he is permanently on the toilet and Kate is in the en suite, doing the same, lol!
Excuse my flippancy, Dick will not be responsible for the McCann investigation as she takes over as head of terrorism which was what Yates did and acknowledged he did well rather pointedly by Theresa May, since I have been in office, i.e. she was not crediting him prior to that. Clever.
But anyway, Gerry could be considered a terrorist, they do wear suits and he has attracted the attention of GCHQ.
WHAT ABOUT OPERATION YATES, THAT LASTED A DAY (Mr Khan to Mr Yates)
I just cannot stop laughing at that one, priceless!
Today’s Wall Street Journal has a story about Max Mosley payback in the phone hacking scandal. His weekend recreation was highlighted by the NOW in 2008. Reading this story makes me wonder could this be ‘a rich man’s revenge’.
‘LONDON—In a chic Kensington house near Harrods department store, the former head of the Formula One racing circuit has set up a small business with a big mission: to extract payback from News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch.
The house serves as an office for Max Mosley, who in 2008 became the object of international ridicule when News Corp.'s News of the World tabloid published details of a sadomasochistic romp he'd had with five women. The paper reported the orgy had a Nazi theme, an especially sensitive point for a man whose father founded the British fascist party and supported Hitler before World War II.
Mr. Mosley admitted the sexual liaison but strongly denied the Nazi angle. He sued News of the World for invading his privacy and won £60,000 ($96,800) in damages, with the court agreeing there was "no evidence" of any Nazi theme.
That was just the start of his campaign: The multimillionaire says he has made it his "full-time job" to ensure that the public learns about the aggressive reporting tactics that he says turned the now-closed tabloid into a "criminal enterprise."
Since early 2010, Mr. Mosley says he's pledged £2 million to £3 million to help finance several of the civil lawsuits being filed by other people against the News of the World for allegedly hacking into their mobile phones in pursuit of scoops.
Mr. Mosley is guaranteeing that if these plaintiffs reject a settlement, pursue a case at trial and lose —which would compel them to pay the defendant's legal fees—he will cover the costs.’
I just wonder who these other people are – perhaps the Mcs?
Hiya Wiz and thanks for that. I had kind of forgot about Max Moseley who appeared at the same time as Gerry before the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee.
There is something really insidious about the nature of public smearing. If you say it in The News of the World under cover of something that is actually the truth, that association will always stick in the minds of the public.
I am referring to the suggestion there was a Nazi theme which it seems was just a reference to what they knew about his father and intended to give the story maximum erm sting, do forgive me there.
It is similar to the most sordid and disgusting claims you can read about Gordon Brown on the net, it is rubbish but it makes people think it.
So yes, I think what the NOW did was offensive enough to seriously upset this wealthy man and of course he can hire his own private investigators etc. I hope as Rebekah sits and cries over what she has done she ponders just one thing, sex does not really sell.
Hi Viv & Wizard
Viv please don't feel sorry for me, the one thing I can't abide is a crook. If Cameron has to go then so be it, it quite honestly is looking that way, more fool him just to gain power, crooks the lot of them. I watched Boris being interviewed live this afternoon, it was cringe worthy, he could hardly string two words together, the press had a field day with him.
If all this phone hacking, and brushing under the carpet, was on Conservative watch then their heads should roll, I have no doubt about that.
Yes Viv, you really are Mystic Meg, Lol
Hiya Di
I am sure the current poor excuse for a conservative government must be distressing to many voters who wanted to see a change from Labour's spending, managerialism and quangos.
I find it hard to have much faith with either side!
I do agree Boris is cringeworthy, he is using that "mistake" word so beloved of the MucKanns and saying the police "just need to sort it out".
Let us sit back and watch the heads roll and pray that the Americans lock the Murdochs up and asset strip them. Then, perhaps, we could get back to a normal political system and less greedy coppers who are only interested in self interest and wealth accumulation without giving any good service in return.
I do think the simple act of putting some decent women in charge helps... you may think of Rebekah but she was not really intelligent or in charge was she and how quickly they dropped her. I think she was a bit of a fall girl if things did go awry for Murky. Someone pretty for him to look at and easy to manipulate and get her to do just what he wanted her to do without getting his own hands too dirty. Textbook stuff really.
Lol about Mystic Meg, I took one look at Yates and his sympathy for Kate and Gerry McScam and thought erm...well I am not surprised he has fallen from grace, but am sure he will get his fingers stuck into some other pie and a nice payoff/pension. In fact I know his pension will be absolutely massive!
Hi Viv
I agree, let us sit back and watch, it is quite fascinating.
I just hope in all this turmoil, the truth about what happened to Madeleine is also not going to be brushed under the carpet, or burried under the bad news.
I am sure Viv, as you say, Stephenson & Yates went to protect their big fat pensions.
Hiya Di
It seems that all three of us are absolutely loving this!
I am still very confident Madeleine will now get a very thorough and proper investigation. Cameron obviously knew the full extent of what was coming and knew that atonement to the public was due.
I am sure that is a lot to do with the battle for public sympathy and why it is so important to the McCanns and Cameron has been watching it closely. Would he use Madeleine as some pawn in a political game, I think so.
The McCanns have not won the war on public sympathy, Kate's book was disgusting and has only served to make their situation worse. So Cameron would astutely reason that one good thing to come out of all this would be a proper investigation of the Maddie case and maybe convictions if that is possible. I think that is must be. I have always thought clever CPS lawyers could suitably frame charges to match what they absolutely know they did.
It just would not be possible to have 30 murder squad detectives all just wasting their time conducting a whitewash. Yates showed us how those are done, the officers are never assigned to actually carry out any investigation, he just makes a decision, in a day!
If there was any risk to the McCanns being prosecuted the two figures that stood in the way of that have now removed themselves and yes, probably to try and ensure they get their full pension. I suppose I should be sure about Stephenson, he publically supported Yates recently and did have that £12000 spa, gratis when he could obviously have afforded to be honest and pay for any rehabilitation treatment he needed. That is how people like him get sucked into the world of owing favours and being thoroughly corrupt.
In the above clip, Yates starts of by saying it has been suggested to me that my phone was hacked, but then in the end he says "it arrived from my own knowledge in the period 2005-2006 and the records no longer exist".
This man thinks like a criminal and lies like one. The only good thing you could say about that, if he wanted to get someone he would be able to read them like a book! I reckon he would only have needed just a couple of minutes with Gerry McCann.
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