At 9PM, 25th June 2002, BBC Crimewatch was about to announce yet another investigation into a notorious, unsolved murder.
The case involved the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was found in the car park of a south London pub 24 years ago with an axe buried in his head.
The case collapsed again recently - for the fifth time - undermined hugely by police corruption in the early years. But itâs what happened after this Crimewatch broadcast to the senior detective in charge, Dave Cook, which has never been told before.
Alastair Morgan, the brother of Daniel Morgan, the murdered private investigator spoke to Detective Dave Cook often during the investigation.
He told Channel 4 News: âDave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didnât realise who the newspaper was at that point.â
Within days of the Crimewatch broadcast, itâs understood that Dave Cook had been told by colleagues he was being targetted by the News of the World.
Alastair Morgan describes what is supposed to have happened next: "I learned about the surveillance and then I learned that it was the News of the World that was carrying out the surveillance.
âDave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed.â
Itâs alleged that the police discovered one of the vans was leased to the News of the World. So concerned were the police that a witness protection unit was mobilised - as well as a police counter surveillance team.
When finally confronted, the News of the World apparently said they were interested in whether Dave Cook was having an affair with a Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames. They were in fact married at the time. Jacqui Hames has told Channel 4 News she has been contacted by Operation Weeting Detectives investigating the phone hacking scandal.
What is so disturbing about this allegation is the timing of the targeting of Dave Cook. Because in the murder investigation he was leading, suspects in the case were private investigators who, itâs alleged, had close links to the News of the World.
Channel 4 News also understands that Rebekah Brooks - now CEO of News International - knows all about this.
Because, itâs claimed, there was a meeting at Scotland Yard in December 2002, in which the police challenged her over this.
We still do not know what the outcome of that meeting was, but both the News of the World and the Metropolitan Police appear never to have spoken about it publicly.
Tonight the News of the World told Channel 4 News: "News International has not been previously aware of these claims but will investigate any allegations that are put to them.
They say they are not in a position to confirm or deny whether any meeting took place or what may have been said if indeed a meeting did take place.
Orange, T Mobile, Ford, nPower have all released statements saying theyâre reconsidering their advertising position with the NoTW.
Tomorrowâs Independent will be throwing another spanner in the works. Despite Brooks/Wadeâs denials that she knew anything about the Dowler incident the Independent are claiming she personally the private detective herself.
None of this was ever going to be a story because all media were up to their oxters in it. The reason itâs become the big story ot has is because the other editors are after Brooks cos of the big Sky merger threatening their advertising positions
Rumblings that may happen and that this latest story may have been leaked by News Int themselves to rid themselves of Brooks and scapegoat her & her era for this whole phone hacking malarkey
BBC now reporting that payments were made from News Of The World/News Internatioal to the police for information which is illegal of course. Futhermore it was with the knowledge of then editor and Cameronâs Press Secretary up til a couple of months back Andrew Coulson. Cameron could be in shit about this now.
Rocko clarify your above post please. Word or two missing in it.
No Coulsen said everything was done within the law after Brooks said payments were made. After she said this she went on to clarify that if payments were made she had no knowledge of it. Brooks now alleged to have personally looked for numbers etc from private investigator. Sneaky one.
Well yeah exactly. She backtracked. That hearing led to Coulsens downfall
Itâs a bit strange Sky News are all over this like a rash. Rolling coverage, journalists on the Papers Review slating News International⌠almost like theyâre trying to show some objectivity or something
I think The Times had it on front page this morning too. Could be all sorts, including power struggles within the organisation. More likely with Sky News itâs a deliberate attempt to show objectivity, at least until the takeover is complete.
They were running from it yesterday. Wasnât even the lead story which was pretty hard to believe. To be honest if this wasnât lead story then it would be absurd. Channel 4 and BBC to a lesser extent have covered story much better imo. Proactive rather than reactive which it seems Skyâs coverage is.
The other thing thatâs strange is the police seem to be getting off lightly here. For that young ones voicemail to have been hacked, someone would have had to call her mailbox⌠So did the police know the calls were been made? Surely it would have been easy to find out, and anyone found making the calls would be a prime suspect in the murder. Did the police cover it up? Or was their investigation so Mickey mouse that someone was able to call the victimâs phone and delete messages, and they had no idea?
Sorry was off watching Newsnight. Yeah as youâve now seen the Independent are alleging that Wade contacted the private detective on the Milly Dowler case herself.
Telegraph are suggesting that 7/7 relativesâ phones were also hacked.
Soham girls, the McCanns, that young wan whoâs Mother helped run a campaign against pedophiles in the NOTW. Theyâre all being told they were potentially (aka probably) hacked
They werenât initially aware of the voicemail manipulation but the NoTW told the police when they received a voicemail from a recruitment agency (after some weird hoax thing from a woman pretending to be Milly Dowler) and even published the story in the paper. It seems they didnât know that it was hacked before then but did know that voicemails were being deleted (seemingly only because people reported that the voicemail that had been full was no longer full). That was obviously hugely detrimental to the investigation but the police did nothing. They seem to have been below the newspaper in the order of power but their competence as well as their independence is hugely questionable now.
(I know the Paul Williams stuff here isnât comparable but this is a lesson in why the media and the police forces should not be interdependent and enjoying these cosy relationships that result in the media pursuing convictions with police assistance.)
It was already apparent last week that the police had made a complete mess of the Milly Dowler case (and the related investigations that collapsed last week).
Milly Dowler: Did police mistakes let Levi Bellfield kill again?
Surrey police have apologised for missing opportunities in the hunt for Milly Dowlerâs killer that could have led to Levi Bellfieldâs arrest before he went on to murder two more victims and attempt to murder a third.
Bellfield lived 50 yards from where Milly was last seen in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002 but escaped the net when police, conducting extensive house-to-house inquiries, knocked 10 times at his rented flat without getting an answer but made no inquiries of the landlord as to who lived there.
By the time they did, the flat had seen several tenants come and go, with any potential forensic science evidence obliterated by redecorating and steam cleaning. Meanwhile, Bellfield had gone on to murder Amelie Delagrange, 22, and Marsha McDonnell, 19, and attempt to murder Kate Sheedy, 18.
It also took three years for Operation Ruby detectives hunting Millyâs killer to learn that another girl, Rachel Cowles, who was then 11, had been the target of an attempted abduction 24 hours before Millyâs disappearance and only three miles from where Milly was taken.
Rachel, walking home from school in her uniform in Shepperton, had been approached on 20 March 2002 by a man driving a red car who tried to entice her in. Milly went missing one day later.
The jury in the Bellfield trial found him guilty on Thursday of murdering Milly. They were continuing deliberations on the allegation that Bellfield had attempted to kidnap Rachel. But the judge, citing media coverage of the case, discharged the jury. The Old Bailey heard that there would be no retrial over Rachel and that a charge would lie on file.
Surreyâs chief constable, Mark Rowley, has privately apologised to Millyâs parents and to Rachel for mistakes made in the investigation. He is due to meet relatives of the other victims privately.
âMistakes were made,â said Assistant Chief Constable Jerry Kirkby. âWith the benefit of hindsight there are aspects we would have handled differently. Could we have done anything to catch him earlier? We have agonised over that issue.â
[b]The family of McDonnell has called for a review of whether the police could have prevented her death. They commended Surrey police for getting a conviction for Millyâs murder but called for âa very precise review of all that went on in that initial investigation by the Surrey force into Millyâs disappearance and subsequent murderâ.
The police call handler who spoke to Rachelâs mother made an incident report, which was passed to the north Surrey division. But no statement was taken from Rachel and no officer visited her house. It was only three years later, after Bellfield was arrested for the Delagrange murder, that detectives hunting Millyâs killer learned he had been living next to where she disappeared and was driving his girlfriendâs red Daewoo Nexia at the time.
A TV appeal prompted Rachelâs mother to call the incident room and report again what had happened. There was still no immediate response. She then went to try to report her suspicions in person at a police station and finally wrote to the chief constable before a statement was taken.[/b]
Kirkby acknowledged it was âa missed opportunityâ and the incident should have been prioritised. It was a poor initial response, he said, but processes had been changed since and, given the lack of a description of the driver or the car at the time, it was difficult to say how much it would have helped.
Police carried out 3,500 house to house inquiries in the Milly Dowler case, the biggest investigation the force has conducted. At a cost of ÂŁ6m, 100 officers were drafted in, searching 350 sites, including 40 underwater locations and 35 miles of waterways. They checked out 73 reported sightings in the UK and abroad.
They noted 256 people of potential interest within a five-mile radius, including 50 registered sex offenders. No one raised Bellfield as a suspect. Inquiries were âextensive but not exhaustiveâ but, Kirkby acknowledged, âshould have been more exhaustiveâ.
âBut even if Bellfield himself had answered the door there was nothing to suggest him as a suspect,â Kirkby said.
The only convictions relating to Bellfield on the police national computer were for possessing an offensive weapon and burglaries committed in his youth.
After his arrest, however, the Metropolitan police investigated about 20 other offences of alleged rape, druggings and assaults. Some of the rape charges lie on file. On the other charges there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.Those cases authorities attempted to prosecute included an attack on Irma Dragoshi, 36, in West Drayton in December 2003. A man travelling with Bellfield claimed he saw him get out of the car, run at her and drag her to the ground.
Another was the attack on Anne-Marie Rennie, 17, after walking to a bus stop in Twickenham in October 2001. Bellfield is said to have picked up the teenager and dragged her to his car. She escaped and, as she ran, heard Bellfield shout âwhoreâ. A jury in 2008 failed to reach a verdict on both cases.
âHe is a very flexible offender. He chooses his victims as they come,â detective chief inspector Maria Woodall said. âHeâs devious, dangerous and adept at covering his tracks.â
[b]Bellfield was the subject of a credit card investigation and was interviewed by police about that four days after he had murdered Delagrange.
Police deny their inquiry was hampered by their initial suspicions of Millyâs father, whom they reportedly had under surveillance and bugged. âHe was never categorised as a suspect,â said Woodall, refusing to confirm or deny that covert surveillance had taken place.[/b]
That is at odds with what Dowler himself believed, telling the jury he was anxious the police interest in him might deflect from them finding Millyâs real killer.