13 Jul 2011

MPs LAUGH AT ASST COMMISSIONER JOHN YATES AND CALL FOR HIS RESIGNATION


My thanks go to "Carmen" on Missing Madeleine for finding these two excellent videos.  I hope I have not got you the sack! 


Dodgy Geezer Hayman adopts the profile really well here, with all the body language and gestures of a gangland thug,  and talks the defensive talk, you know, do you wanna say that again (I dare you)  how dare you attack MY integrity,  Good God.... erm what integrity Mr Hayman.  I have to say you do not sound like a former Deputy Commissioner.   You do not sound even like someone who works for The Times, but there again it is hardly an illustrious title under the control and ownership of Murky Murdoch, I never bother with the rag.  There are plenty better. 


Meanwhile Kay Burleigh refuses, repeatedly to apologise to Chris Bryant for rubbishing his claims about hacking at News International. Instead she proceeds to ask her question, do you think Gordon and Sarah Brown regret their close links with News International over the years.  She can hardly wipe the snigger from her mouth as she says it.  The Murdoch/right wing conspiracy against him clearly continues, but as Chris demonstrates, she is an intellectual light weight.    It is a bit like the repeated attempts of the McScams to insist they did nothing criminal it was the bad man who took Maddie from her bed, he deserves all the blame, yes we know Gerry, but one small problem, was there any evidence of Maddie having been in that bed?   I wonder how you looked down on her at 9.05 pm on that cold night on 3 May 2007 and thought to yourself how beautiful she was.   I think you about as believable as some of the other goons here.  It is easy to get to the top of a profession, you just need to be a smooth talking liar with no morals.  Trust me I know, I worked in Probation, the decent officers never wanted to be promoted.  



How mean of them, I think he is every bit as convincing as Gerry McCann.   Both are just doing their best to bury some bad news.    Both seem to like to pray but do not come across as God botherers in the strict sense of the word.  In fact Gerry thinks that is family time he can do without. 


John Yates evidence on phone hacking mocked by MPs

Scotland Yard chief urged to quit after select committee greets his account of failed initial inquiry with laughter
John Yates
John Yates was forced to deny he had lied during a previous appearance before the commitee. Photograph: Reuters
MPs investigating the police's response to the hacking affair yesterday derided the evidence of one of Scotland Yard's most senior officers, fuelling calls for his resignation.
Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who was recalled to appear before the home affairs committee, faced 50 minutes of hostile questions over the force's failings in the initial investigations into allegations of hacking at the News of the World.
Yates's former colleagues Peter Clarke, previously the Met's counter terror chief, and former assistant commisisoner Andy Hayman were also given a tough time by the committee which demanded answers on why the Met had for years failed to identify up to 4,000 victims.
The officers and ex-officers insisted their efforts had been thwarted by the failure of News International (NI) to divulge evidence – with one of them accusing the firm of telling "lies".
Sue Akers, deputy assistant commissioner and head of the current investigation, which began in January this year, revealed to MPs that so far 170 victims and suspected victims had now been contacted by her team working through 3,870 names in evidence including the 11,000 pages of files from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Those files were part of the evidence used in 2007 to convict the News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, and Mulcaire, who had hacked phones for the newspaper.
And yesterday Yates, first to appear before MPs, was under huge pressure to explain why, in July 2009, after the Guardian alleged there were thousands more victims of the illegal practice, he did not order a fresh investigation after being asked to review the case by the Met commissioner.
Yates, once strongly tipped as a future commissioner himself, admitted his examination of the case was limited to talking to the original senior investigating officer – and reviewing legal advice.
He apologised for his "poor" decision saying that given the new evidence from NI showing how widespread hacking and even bribing of police officers for information was, it was clear he had been wrong. Yates was forced to deny he had lied during a previous appearance before the committee and insisted all his evidence had been 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," Yates told the committee.
He told MPs he had not offered his resignation and insisted his role had been small and it would be wrong for him to suffer for the actions of NI.
The Met's commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, responded later by abandoning plans to stay silent over the committee session and issued a statement backing Yates: "We need to give him credit for his courage and humility in acknowledging that if he knew then what he knows now, he would have taken different decisions.
"He currently undertakes one of the most difficult jobs in UK policing, and is doing an outstanding job leading our fight against terrorism. He has my full support and confidence."
But Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly policing spokesperson said Yates had to resign. "It is shameful that John Yates found time to have five lunches with the News of the World and News International, but after just a few hours decided there was no additional evidence to justify a further investigation into phone hacking"
The former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown also said Yates, with a reputation as the Yard's troubleshooter, should go: "This is a man employed for judgment and it is plain by his own admission that he has made a very serious error of judgment.
During the hearing, MPs passed notes to the chair containing one-word descriptions of Yates's evidence.
Some MPs wrote "evasive" but when Yates finished, committee chair Keith Vaz MP said he and his colleagues found his testimony "unconvincing" and he could be recalled.
Next in front of MPs was Peter Clarke, who oversaw the first investigation which began in 2005, who admitted that evidence recovered from Mulcaire had not been thoroughly gone through by his detectives. Thus they had failed to identify victims of the NoW hacking including the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose voicemail was accessed after she disappeared. Clarke said NI's size and wealth to afford the best legal advice had been a factor in his investigation, which he said was also hampered by the law.
In his evidence, Clarke accused NI of "lies" over its claims it would co-operate with the first investigation which he said they had tried to thwart.
Clarke said he could not justify the resources that going through the 11,000 pages of files would have taken. In 2006, when Goodman and Mulcaire were arrested, he was overseeing 70 terrorism investigations and said he prioritised resources at operations to stop terrorist attacks.
Asked if he believed whether more than one News of the World journalist had been involved in hacking, Clarke said: "Not only was I suspicious, I was as certain as I could be they had something to hide."
Clarke claimed NI lawyers carefully crafted letters, offering limited cooperation.
Clarke said: "This is a major global organisation with access to the best legal advice, in my view deliberately trying to thwart a police investigation.
"If at any time News International had offered some meaningful co-operation instead of prevarication and what we now know to be lies, we would not be here today."
Former assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, in charge of the section that carried out the first flawed investigation, was called a "dodgy geezer" by one MP on the committee. He denied being corrupt, but was criticised for dining with NI executives while officers under his direct command were investigating the company for criminal offences.
Hayman, who left the Met in 2008 and took up a role as a coulmnist for the Times, said: "I was seen by the [Times] editor and deputy editor. I didn't know them from Adam … I can absolutely say that any hint that I am in their back pocket is unfounded." Any dinners were "businesslike" rather than "candle-lit affairs where state secrets were discussed", he said.
News International declined to comment on Clarke's accusations about their conduct. Akers's evidence contained more problems for Yates. He claimed he had asked officers to enter the thousands of documents on an electronic database, but Akers said this had been bungled and her team had had to start again.
Yates said new evidence from NI led to the new inquiry, called Operation Weeting. Akers said this was true, but also that civil actions brought by people who felt let down by the lack of police investigation and who feared they had been hacked, had also been a factor.
Inside Scotland Yard there was anger at the treatment by MPs to senior officers and former officers. Despite Yates insisting he would not quit, he will continue to be under pressure and will likely face significant criticism from the MPs in their final report expected in several months.


And here is Sue Akers, immediately below Yates but in sole charge of "Operation Weeting" into the conduct of the News of the World.  She is adopting a broad brush approach which is code for doing a proper job rather than deliberately limiting the remit of the investigation.  It must be a tough call for her to have to investigate what her corrupt boss (and former bosses in that post) wanted to cover up.


Thousands of hacking victims yet to be contacted, says Met's Sue Akers

Officer leading latest investigation into phone hacking tells MPs police have contacted only 170 of the 4,000 potential victims
Met police's Sue Akers says only 170 phone-hacking victims contacted Link to this video
Scotland Yard has notified just 170 of the 4,000 suspected victims ofphone hacking named in Glenn Mulcaire's files, it has emerged.
Sue Akers, the deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan policein charge of the fresh investigation into phone hacking, Operation Weeting, told a group of MPs that the Met was trying to contact every one of the people named in Mulcaire's notes, but admitted that just 170 had been told so far.
Giving evidence to the home affairs select committee, Akers told MPs she was adopting a "very broad" approach to the inquiry. People who have left messages on hacked phones feel that their privacy has been invaded, as well as those people to whom the messages were directed, she said.
The figure came to light shortly after Andy Hayman, the former senior police officer who oversaw the original investigation into hacking in 2006, told MPs it was "news to me" that his phone had been hacked; and Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who reviewed that investigation in 2009, said he was "99% certain" his own mobile was hacked.
In a tense session, Yates was accused of giving "unconvincing" evidence to the committee of MPs reviewing the police investigation into hacking.
But Yates insisted he had no intention of quitting over the affair, despite admitting that it had been "damaging" to the reputation of the police.
Scotland Yard officers involved in Operation Weeting are examining 11,000 pages of material containing nearly 4,000 names of possible hacking victims. But Yates conceded he had not seen the 11,000 pages and did not know what was in them.
Yates's session began with a warning from Keith Vaz, chair of the committee, that witnesses who give false evidence and "persistently mislead a committee may be considered guilty of contempt of the House of Commons".
Yates strongly denied allegations in the New York Times that he was put under pressure not to investigate phone hacking at the News of the World because of fears that the Sunday tabloid would publish details about his personal life.
"I categorically state that was not the case to each and every one of you. I think it's despicable, I think it's cowardly," he told the MPs.
Yates said he had "never, ever, ever" received payment from journalists for information, but admitted it was "highly probable" that some of his officers did.
Despite a session that ran over by 20 minutes following a volley of tough questions from MPs, Vaz concluded that Yates's evidence had been "unconvincing" and said he may be called back.
Yates acknowledged in an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that his decision not to reopen an investigation in 2009 following revelations made in a Guardian article was "pretty crap".



19 comments:

Unknown said...

The one top cop who has been a McCann friend has a real bad smell around him. What about your pension, Mr Yates? It does not sound to me from reading the above as though you did much "rebutting" or image cleaning, sometimes big institutions are better when certain characters get removed, it is often found the whole ethos changes. People even start to remember what they are being paid to do, you know, protect the public, bring criminals to justice, safeguard children by bringing child abusers and murderers to justice. That is what your big salary is for, actually, Mr Yates.

Yard officer to face hacking quiz
Thursday, 24 March 2011


Acting Deputy Commissioner John Yates will appear before MPs amid claims he misled parliament over the phone hacking scandal

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A top Scotland Yard officer is due to appear before MPs amid claims that he misled parliament over the phone hacking scandal.
Acting Deputy Commissioner John Yates was accused of conspiring with the News of the World when the allegations were investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

He will be quizzed by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee after he asked for the opportunity to "rebut" the claims of Labour MP Chris Bryant.

In a letter to committee chairman John Whittingdale, Mr Yates said the MP had made "very serious allegations" about his integrity.

"I am most concerned that the reputation of the Metropolitan Police as well as my own is being damaged by these unfounded allegations," he said.

"You may therefore think it sensible that I be provided with the opportunity to allay Mr Bryant's, and perhaps your, concerns."

Mr Bryant, MP for Rhondda, told the Commons this month that the officer had misled the Home Affairs Select Committee last September by claiming there were only eight to 12 phone hacking victims by News of the World journalists.

He claimed at least eight MPs were among the victims and said executives at the News of World met senior officers during the original investigation and when there were calls for it to be re-opened.

A dinner in 2009 between then Assistant Commissioner Yates and News of the World editor Colin Myler happened just as the officer was refusing calls to reopen the investigation, he claimed.

The meeting was "at best ill-advised or at worst fairly or unfairly smacks of collusion", Mr Bryant told MPs.



Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/yard-officer-to-face-hacking-quiz-15124329.html#ixzz1RwdfRcmt

Unknown said...

Clarke said NI's size and wealth to afford the best legal advice had been a factor in his investigation, which he said was also hampered by the law.

Well I just do not want to hear that the size and wealth of Team McCann is a factor in not investigating them properly.

It is saddening to hear of Sir Paul Stephenson backing this so called police officer, he is not fit to be a constable.

Unknown said...

Former assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, in charge of the section that carried out the first flawed investigation, was called a "dodgy geezer" by one MP on the committee. He denied being corrupt, but was criticised for dining with NI executives while officers under his direct command were investigating the company for criminal offences.
Hayman, who left the Met in 2008 and took up a role as a coulmnist for the Times, said: "I was seen by the [Times] editor and deputy editor. I didn't know them from Adam … I can absolutely say that any hint that I am in their back pocket is unfounded." Any dinners were "businesslike" rather than "candle-lit affairs where state secrets were discussed", he said.


Let us hope there will be no grace and favour job for Mr Yates at Murdoch's murky, bribing empire when he falls on his sword as he inevitably will.

The MPs and better officers at London Met who uphold proper standards, not affected by posh dinners and parties thrown by Murdoch are doing a sterling job in rooting out the cancer that has been eating away at London Met for so many years. They can be a force for great good, rather than deliberately bungled investigations and backhanders.

Unfortunately a few bad apples always ruin the entire crop, particularly when they are right at the top. There should be no place for Rebekah's in journalism or Hayman and Yates at London Met all cosying up together for their own self interest, acting as criminals themselves, they naturally protect them rather than net them.

Rebekah ran a so called crusade against paedophiles by naming them , that led to a baying vigilante mob and probably ruined dozens of ongoing police investigations. No doubt about whose side she is on.

If criminals are in personal danger through the actions of journalists or so much has been put into the public domain by them, judges take the view they cannot be put on trial. They just get away with it. I do not think Rebekah should be allowed to get away with it, or the senior police officers and politicians she has in her pocket.

Unknown said...

Wiz, if you are around, a question given you are a Londoner and clearly in the know.

Do London Met only promote people to the post of Deputy Commissioner if they are dodgy geezers who are good at taking backhanders, defending their "integrity", doing non investigations and generally getting the bid eiderdown out for their mates?

Apologies to Sue Akers , The Times they are a Changin, lol! I think she deserves to go far...and there may be another vacancy coming up. As Deputy Assistant Commissioner I take it she is just one rung down from Yates, so hang on in there lady and do not worry about knocking him or them off the perch.

Unknown said...

How to drop the boss in it and well done Sue:

News International declined to comment on Clarke's accusations about their conduct. Akers's evidence contained more problems for Yates. He claimed he had asked officers to enter the thousands of documents on an electronic database, but Akers said this had been bungled and her team had had to start again.

Unknown said...

Watching and listening to Sue Akers on the above video at The Guardian I have to say does renew my faith in London Met. She frankly admitted that so far only 170 have been contacted out of countless thousands. There are also lists of 5000 landlines hacked and I think it was 4000 mobiles. To start with and to ensure a proper job is done all the information from the original 2005-2006 so called investigation has now been put onto a searchable data base.

This inquiry will clearly cost millions and is a massive undertaking. It would be interesting if Cameron told us just how much it is going to cost and whether London Met are also getting funding from The Home Office to do a proper job given the enormity of the task, as in the Maddie case, where we know who is being investigated. No new suspects having been identified, if they had, Kate and Gerry would not hesitate in telling us. The fact that they purport to still be conducting their own ahem, "investigation" also tells us that.

Unknown said...

I posted on Amazon Kate McCann page tonight. I asked the posters how they claim to know the police are not investigating the fund.

Given we know who the suspects are and we know just how much dosh they have made out of missing Maddie it is very insulting to suggest the police have not looked at the Fund. Well, unless Mr Yates had been put in charge. Fortunately, as we know, although he was friendly to Kate and Gerry, he was not given the task. They gave that job to an expert who really does catch murderers.

Unknown said...

I think this is just wonderful news, and what a load of rubbish on Sky Television anyway. It is about time we just got rid of Murky Murdoch altogether, and his son and heir apparent, we don't need the News of the World, The Sun or The Times in UK, they are ruined, all of them.

I believe The Sun was originally meant to be a paper for the working class, now it is a paper to con the working class by a bunch of rich coke snorters.



The government will support Labour's motion asking MPs to call on Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to withdraw its BSkyB bid in a Commons debate on Wednesday.

MPs from all sides seem likely to back the motion, which reads: "The house believes that it is in the public interest for Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation to withdraw their bid for BSkyB."

su said...

Excellent coverage . Thank you for this.
I don't think it should be up to Yates to refuse to resign.
He needs to be forced out.
Paul Stephenson - no great surprise there.

Absolutely amazing that such filth is found in high places.

I wanted to comment on the silence of Joanna Morais since this story broke. Not one comment added. Page frozen. Very interesting.
Why is the question I need to know.

Unknown said...

Hiya Su

I think they want the case re-opening in Portugal which is exactly the same as what Gerry wants as I have been pointing out on here for years.

If there was a stranger abductor British Police could not be dealing with it, it would be the sole responsibility of Portugal, BUT THEY ARE which means nothing changed, McCanns are prime suspects and can and will be dealt with in UK.

Goncalo always complained that evidence has been held back from him, well that is good otherwise it would be in his book and UK could not put McCanns on trial. These so called "anti" McCanns demand to see the McCanns medical records etc, in short they want exactly what the McCanns wants, knowledge of what the police know about them and so much stuff about them on the internet they can complain they could not get a fair trial. But given they are orchestrating all of this to sell books!

What have Goncalo and kate got in common, they are both making millions selling books about Madeleine. Not nice is it? Why is there no defamation case against him?

Unknown said...

Sue Akers also complains "we are distracted by disclosure in the civil actions" when trying to explain the vast scale of the phonehacking task, not that MPs were the least bit critical of her.

From reading this again the Met appear to be acting in a text book way. Pile all the blame upon someone that has left, she refers to the 2005-2006 documents being put onto the database. That was Hayman in charge at that time, not Yates. If Yates knew in 2009 that was a really nasty can of worms that reeked of corruption both within the London Met and among politicians and of course News International he should have done what he is paid to do and opened it. But he tried to keep the lid on it and covered up the terrible details i.e. Milly Dowler, a serious criminal case, HACKED. What does it say about our police when they can just turn their back on newspapers doing the listening in, instead of them and trashing serious criminal cases, yes, just like the case of Kate and Gerry. But eventually Milly Dowler's killer has been brought to book so I think we are getting justice now.

Maybe Yates is really good on terrorism and that is why Sir Paul needs him to stay, if that is the case he should have the guts to say so, but that aside, any authority who wants a clean image for doing precisely what they are paid to do needs to get rid of the turn a blind eye type of copper. The public are just sickened by corruption in high places, did they not even learn that yet!

Unknown said...

Shares in Sky rocket as Murdoch backs off..

BSkyB bounces as Murdoch retreats
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up 37.47 to 5906 +0.64%

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by Max Julius on Jul 13, 2011 at 17:15


BSkyB shares have risen, a sign that while News Corp's withdrawal of its bid is a humiliation for Rupert Murdoch, it is not bad news for the satellite broadcaster

Focus on fundamentals

Investors are likely to focus on the fundamentals of British Sky Broadcasting (BSY.L) now that News Corp has withdrawn its bid for 61% of the group it does not already own, analysts say.

News Corp pulled the bid following a frenzy of media attention and political debate over the proposed takeover, amid mounting public outrage over a phone hacking scandal at News of the World that may have spread to some of Murdoch’s other UK newspapers.

Immediately after the announcement BSkyB shares initially slumped but subsequently recovered to gain 13.5p, or 2%, to 705.5p – after clawing back up from a day low of 663.5p. Investors in New York also welcomed the move, sending News Corp shares up 4.4% to $16.02.

Before the end-of-day rally the shares had slumped 18.5% from a year high of 850p on 4 July.

‘[If] you look at where the share price is now and what’s happening… the shares are now starting to bounce back, which makes sense,’ says Ian Whittaker, analyst at Liberum Capital. ‘Because what people are now saying is, “the uncertainty of the bid has gone away”.’

Whittaker adds that prior to the move, BSkyB had faced the possibility that the UK Competition Commission would rule against Murdoch in its deliberations over the proposed takeover, ‘so they may be forced, in the worst case, to get rid of their 39% stake in Sky.’

He continues: ‘That presumably has gone away, because they’ve said they’re keeping their stake.’

Indeed, Chase Carey, News Corp’s chief operating officer, said in a terse statement: ‘News Corporation remains a committed long-term shareholder in BSkyB. We are proud of the success it has achieved and our contribution to it.’

Prime minister David Cameron, who has been criticised over his own relations with Murdoch, welcomed the news: 'The business should focus on clearing up the mess and getting its own house in order,' he said through a spokesman.

Ed Miliband, opposition Labour leader, said it was a victory for those who had opposed the extension of Murdoch's power.

Whittaker says the focus ‘is now back on the fundamentals of Sky’, pointing out that consensus opinion had previously held that ‘this is a fundamentally good company’. He added that BSkyB shares were likely to ‘go back up from here on in’, although ‘obviously that depends on the wider market as well.’

Unknown said...

(also from Citiwire)

Politicians unite to attack News

Corp

Earlier in parliament, Cameron said Murdoch should drop the bid while police probed allegations that the now defunct News of the World hacked the voicemails of thousands of people looking for stories, and also bribed police officers for information.

The prime minister also said Lord Justice Leveson would take charge of a two-pronged inquiry into the ‘disgraceful’ scandal, investigating wrongdoing in the press and police and carrying out a review of the regulation of the press.

Welcoming the terms of the inquiry, Miliband said: ‘The revelations of the past week have shocked the whole country and the public now rightly expect those of us in this house – those who represent them – to provide not just an echo for that shock, but the leadership necessary to start putting things right.’

Unknown said...

I wish I had risked a little flutter on Sky Shares when Murdoch sent them to an all time low, the rise now would have been a little winner!

Unknown said...

Chris Bryant is a maverick and a brave man, prepared to stand up for what is right and earn his MP salary looking after the public interest and holding those in power to account.

He has risked being called a deluded nutter etc because he knew he was right. Great guy! It is so easy to try and smear people who speak honestly and truthfully by calling them mad, we hear of it all the time. Not much of a weapon really. I think it is those corrupt people in power who think they can continue to manipulate and cashin with their spin doctors to assist who are quite mad. The truth always comes out in the end.

Unknown said...

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/07/08/gay-mp-chris-bryant-claims-ni-boss-rebekah-brooks-sneered-at-his-sexuality/

Apparently even being gay makes you fair game to homophobic Rebekah who wants to tell all in her filthy rags. Allegedly her ex husband Ross Kemp of Eastenders called her a "homophobic cow". Just the sort of person we need in the media, improving public morals. Gay people have exactly the same right to a decent life, free from pettiness and harassment as she does. Before the Select Committee Rebekah could not even get her words out in 2003 when trying to explain why they paid the police and whether she knows that is against the law. The woman is an uncouth idiot.


Gay MP Chris Bryant claims NI boss Rebekah Brooks sneered at his sexuality

by Jessica Geen
8 July 2011, 1:47pm


Chris Bryant says Ross Kemp told his then-wife: 'Shut up, you homophobic cow'






Gay Labour MP Chris Bryant, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the News of The World, claims that News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks sneered at him for being gay the last time they met.

Speaking to the Evening Standard, he said: “She came up to me and said, ‘Oh, Mr Bryant, it’s after dark – shouldn’t you be on Clapham Common?”

“At which point Ross Kemp [the ex-EastEnders actor and her then husband] said, ‘Shut up, you homophobic cow’.”

Mr Bryant said the incident took place at the Labour Party conference several years ago.

The outspoken MP led politicians’ calls for a more rigorous inquiry into claims of voicemail hacking at the tabloid and has been told by police that his own phone was among those accessed.

He said he embarked on the campaign because a couple in his Rhondda constituency had been “misrepresented” because they knew someone in the news.

Yesterday, it was announced that the News of The World is to close, meaning that around 200 of the newspaper’s current staff – the vast majority of whom had no part in the hacking – will lose their jobs.

Mrs Brooks, who edited the newspaper at the height of the activity, remains in her job.

During the interview, Mr Bryant hinted that his own brush with scandal – when the Mail on Sunday published Gaydar photos of him in his underwear – had made him deeply depressed.

“It is the only time in my life I have ever come close to feeling that I did not want to be around any more,” he said. “I didn’t sleep for about three months.”

Discuss this story:

Unknown said...

Another great find from Carmen at Missing Madeleine about the endearing ex cop Hayman who investigated the News of the World whilst being wined and dined by them and then accepted a lucrative job off them. The MPs are obviously just being scurrilous and downright nasty to suggest he is a wee bit bent, it is just his London accent, apparently. Loved Master of understatement Keith Vaz, "I would normally sum up the evidence but on this occasion it speaks for itself". LOL!

Unknown said...

Andy Hayman stars at phone-hacking committee session
The then top copper in charge of the first inquiry must be given his own sitcom


Simon Hoggart
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 July 2011 19.13 BST
Article history

The star of the marathon committee session on phone hacking was undoubtedly Andy Hayman, the then top copper who was in charge of the first inquiry that led nowhere.

He must be given his own sitcom, a blend of Life On Mars and Minder, starring Hayman as Del Boy. One of the MPs called him "a dodgy geezer" to his face. Put it this way: I wouldn't let him sell me a cheap Rolex, if I wanted to know the time.

His evidence followed other high-ranked plods. As usual John Yates was given a toasting by the committee (he must be a masochist; nothing stops him coming back for more). The chairman, Keith Vaz, told him that his evidence had been "unconvincing", and he could expect to be summoned again. We half-expected him to say: "Ooh, yes, please!"

But to the committee, he was George Washington compared with Mr Hayman. I've seen a few incredulous MPs in my time, but nothing like this. Through most of Mr Hayman's evidence they were either rolling with laughter, or favouring him with a cold, sardonic glare. Or both.

Mr Vaz asked about the fact that he had taken a job as a columnist with News International, the very firm he had been investigating. "That is a private matter for me and the Times," said Hayman primly, to startled surprise.

They asked about his private life. Was it true he'd been hacked over that? "'Aven't got a clue," he replied. It turned out this was one of his catchphrases, along with "dunno", "can't remember", "can't recall" and "that was four or five years ago!"

"All this sounds more like Clouseau than Columbo," said Vaz, in what may have been a microwaved soundbite.

Mark Reckless pointed out that both he and the former DPP were now working for News International. "Do you wonder how that looks to the public?"

Hayman: "It could look bad."

Vaz: "We all think it looks bad."

Julian Huppert, a Lib Dem, said that some of what he said was "quite incredible". Mr Hayman snapped into "who, me? I swear on my baby's life …" mode.

"OK," he said, "beat me up for being upfront and honest!"

The Tory Mark Ellis, his voice swooping up and down with astonishment, said: "You made a judgment call to accept hospitality from the people you were investigating?"

cont'd...(the show goes on)

Unknown said...

Hayman: "Yeah." (Mocking laughter) He added: "Not having the dinner would have been potentially more suspicious than to have it." (Louder laughter.)

"I dunno why you're laughing … we would never, ever have a dinner that would compromise the investigation."

(I wonder what would have happened if he had troughed with a top stolen car dealer. "I do hope you find the lobster Newburg and foie gras to your taste, Basher.")

Nicola Blackwood, a Tory, looked faint. "I feel I've fallen through a rabbit hole," she breathed.

Stephen McCabe, Labour, wanted to know why Hayman had ridiculed John Prescott when he said his phone had been hacked. Vaz: "You said he was ranting and there was no evidence. You said that if he was right, you would eat your words."

Mr Vaz asked if he should pass him a piece of paper, and for a moment we thought he was going to force Hayman, physically, to eat his words.

Lorraine Fullbrook, another Tory, asked outright if he had ever accepted money from NI.

You would have thought she'd accused him of being a predatory paedophile, not someone who had conducted a hopelessly inadequate inquiry into a firm which had wined and dined him, and then given him a well-paid job.

"Good god!" he exploded. "Absolutely not, I can't believe you suggested that! That is a real attack on my integrity!"

Keith Vaz concluded: "Normally I would sum up the evidence, but on this occasion, it speaks for itself." And he didn't mean it in a kind way.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/12/andy-hayman-phone-hacking-committee