Gus: this was the toon of the event that I had prepared last night... Not as graphic as the one above but still worth a posting...

Hi Gus,

I think Rebekah will prove to be highly flammable & will burst into flames to avoid being burnt to the ground just to protect the rotten Rupert & the creepy, conniving Cameron (excuse the lousy metaphors)!!

Yours was an excellent cartoon ... apologies for jumping-in ahead of you ... I didn't mean to steal your thunder.

Cheers,

JR

No need to apologise...  My cartoons are often too didactic and/or too descriptive... but I like them this way... I can do symbolic stuff but it takes too long... Laziness shall prevail.

Rebekah spilling others' blood?... we shall wait and see... Cheers. G

Gotcha! Rupert Murdoch's favourite editor, Rebekah Brooks, has been charged with perverting the course of justice and will face a jury trial that could send her to jail.

The charges allege she withheld documents and computer files from police investigating the phone-hacking scandal in July 2011, just days before she resigned as CEO of the Murdochs' News International.

Also in the cells-if that's where she ends up after her glittering 20-year career at News-will be her husband Charlie Brooks, her chauffeur Paul Edwards, her PA Cheryl Carter, and her security guard Daryl Josling, as well as the ex-head of security at News International, so she won't be short of company. 

How her old paper, The Sun, would have loved the story, had it not been one of theirs who may be heading for the slammer. How could they have resisted reprising the famous headline that greeted the sinking of the General Belgrano all those years ago?

Yes, it was Gotcha all right.

But, surprise, surprise, The Sun hardly even bothered with the news, which managed to rate one brief mention down the bottom of its website, beneath some 50 other stories and pictures that its editor clearly thought more important.

Up in the Twittersphere there was far more excitement, with lots of "finally" and "at last", and several quips about The Sun's campaigns to toughen up jail time for criminals.

There is now much speculation about how much time Brooks might serve if a jury finds her guilty. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment, the average 12 months, but the celebrated author Jeffrey Archer copped a four-year sentence in 2001 for concealing a diary during his libel action in which he won 500,000 pounds damages. However, this did include some time for perjury, of which Archer was also found guilty.

It will doubtless help both the Brookses that they have a 4-month old baby-delivered by a surrogate mother-that both take care of. I saw Charlie carrying her around in a sling at the weekend.

As to how Brooks was caught-and what evidence police have against her-we don't yet know, but the charge sheet alleges that seven boxes of documents were taken out of the News International archive by Brooks and her PA Cheryl Carter. Heaven knows what was in them! 

It also alleges that her husband Charlie, an old Etonian ex-racehorse trainer, helped conceal computers from the police. This may well relate to a laptop found dumped in a rubbish bin near the Brooks's London home. Rumours are that this act was caught on CCTV.

The Brookses responded to the charges in a statement describing them as "weak" and "unjust". They also accused the Crown Prosecution Service of "posturing", which seemed like an odd response, given that the allegations are so precise and so concrete. But maybe that depends on what was in those boxes and on that laptop. No doubt, we shall see in due course.

Three hours later the Brookes fronted the cameras outside their solicitor's London office, with Rebekah expressing outrage that "those closest to me have been dragged into this unfairly" and stating that when the details of the case actually emerge, "people will see today as nothing more than an expensive sideshow". 

Meanwhile, the pressure will mount on Britain's prime minister David Cameron, who went to Eton with Charlie's brother and has been severely embarrassed by revelations of his close relationship with Rebekah, the Murdochs, and News International.

One assumes he's not texted Bex his commiserations with lol this time around.

Rebekah Brooks Charged & Could Face Time

meanwhile .....

Jeremy Hunt's hopes of holding on to his post in the Cabinet were weakened yesterday when the Leveson Inquiry announced it has called both his former special adviser and News Corp's chief lobbyist to give evidence on how the Culture Secretary's office fed inside information to Murdoch executives during the £8bn attempted takeover of BSkyB.

Mr Hunt's former aide, Adam Smith, and the News Corp lobbyist, Fréd Michel, will appear before the judicial inquiry before the end of this month.

The unexpected announcement came as the former chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, her husband, Charlie, and four others were formally charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice over events relating to the phone-hacking scandal. News International's former head of security, Mark Hanna, was among those charged with the conspiracy offence. Last night Ms Brooks said she could "not express strongly enough my anger that those close to me have been dragged into this".

Although David Cameron will be concerned that the Brookses, both friends, face criminal proceedings, his immediate worry will be the future of Mr Hunt.

Both Mr Smith and Mr Michel will be appearing as inquiry witnesses within the next fortnight, offering their versions of the links and insider information that was exchanged between Rupert Murdoch's company and the Government in the run-in to the controversial £8bn bid for BSkyB. They are scheduled to appear before Mr Hunt is given the opportunity to explain his role at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Emails and texts between Mr Michel and Mr Smith, published during the questioning of James Murdoch last month, led Labour to call for Mr Hunt's immediate resignation amid claims that there was overwhelming evidence of his bias towards Rupert Murdoch's company during the bidding process.

Although Mr Hunt has denied any improper conduct, Mr Smith resigned.

The House of Commons this week stated that its constitutional supremacy meant it should be given full disclosure of any evidence relating to the bid and that Parliament should be the first authority to judge Mr Hunt's conduct.

In line with his refusal to grant Mr Hunt a fast-tracked appearance at the inquiry, Lord Justice Leveson yesterday called on the Speaker, John Bercow, to back off, threatening to dump the entire BSkyB issue from his inquiry unless he was given adequate time to question Michel, Smith and Hunt ahead of Parliament.

The appeal court judge said he hoped there would be "sufficient respect" from Mr Bercow to allow the inquiry to proceed and "ensure that the principles of fairness were maintained".

Although he said he would not tell Parliament how far it should go, he said if he couldn't adduce the evidence of Mr Hunt and the BSkyB bid fairly, he would not do it at all. Last night Labour withdrew a parliamentary question calling on Mr Hunt to give evidence to the Commons first.

A political allegation that the Commons' work was being blocked, was also withdrawn by the party. Lord Justice Leveson's threat appeared to have paid off.

During the inquiry's proceedings yesterday, Sky News's political editor, Adam Boulton, said that he thought the current "lobby system" where political journalists are briefed daily by the Prime Minister's official spokesman, was "corrupt".

Mr Boulton, whose wife Anji Hunter was part of Tony Blair's Downing Street communication team, said a "White House" style of televised briefings should be brought in.

Hunt's Aide Told To Testify To Leveson Over Sky Bid

Former UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has lambasted Rupert Murdoch before Britain's media ethics inquiry, claiming the media mogul lied under oath to the inquiry and saying a Murdoch tabloid had undermined the war effort in Afghanistan.

In an often bitter attack, Brown directly contradicted Murdoch's claim that Brown had vowed to "make war on your company" during an abusive phone call after Murdoch's The Sun tabloid switched its support from Brown's Labour Party to the rival Conservatives.

"It didn't happen," said Brown, adding that he had been shocked to hear Murdoch make the allegation to the inquiry in April. "This call did not happen, this threat was not made."

Murdoch's News International company fired back, saying in a statement that the mogul stood by his testimony.

Brown was the first in a string of current and former political leaders to appear this week at the inquiry, set up amid a tabloid phone hacking scandal to examine malpractice in the British media and too-cozy ties among politicians, police and the press. Among the issues the inquiry is addressing is whether newspapers have too much power over the country's political agenda.

Brown told the judge-led inquiry The Sun was guilty of "the conflation of fact and opinion" in its coverage of the Afghanistan conflict and of his premiership.

He said instead of covering the difficult decisions facing his government, The Sun had concluded "that I personally did not care about our troops in Afghanistan".

He said the newspaper had made a series of spurious claims, for example that he had fallen asleep during a service of remembrance for dead troops. Brown said he had been bowing his head in prayer.

Brown asserted The Sun's coverage had done "huge damage" to the British war effort against the Taliban. The former prime minister said the press had "failed this country" by focusing on opinions and ephemera when the war in Afghanistan was at a crucial stage.

The Sun's political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, denied Brown's allegations, saying on Twitter the newspaper had given the conflict prominent coverage.

"Military loathed Brown because they felt he didn't care about them. Sun reported that, but Gordon rewrites history to shoot the messenger," he tweeted.

Brown also spoke of his pain at seeing leaked details of his young son's health splashed in The Sun. The tabloid revealed in 2006 that Brown's infant son Fraser had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Rupert Murdoch Lied Under Oath To Inquiry, Says Gordon Brown

from Crikey …..

Charges imminent for ex-Murdoch journos over hacking

Paul Barry of The Power Index writes:

At 8 o'clock tonight, Australian time, 11 former News of the World journalists, including the paper’s ex-editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, are set to find out whether they will face criminal charges for phone hacking.

The NotW's pet private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who supervised the hacking of voicemails for the Murdochs’ newspaper, and who has already served time in jail, will also learn his fate.

It’s possible, of course, that Alison Levitt QC of the UK Crown Prosecution Service will smile warmly and tell them: "OK, folks, you’re off the hook, you can all go home." But that's unlikely.

Having screwed up first time around, the Metropolitan Police has been under huge pressure to get convictions, with 96 detectives on Operation Weeting and a further 70 on Operation Elveden, which is investigating corrupt payments to public officials. The Crown Prosecution Service has also showed it will play hard ball by charging Brooks and her husband, Charlie, (along with several others) for conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

A trial date for Brooks on those charges will be set as soon as a decision has been taken on phone hacking, but it is unlikely to be this year.

While the names of the 11 journalists are not officially known, it’s clear they include Brooks, Coulson and the NoTW’s former chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, who was the recipient of the notorious "For Neville" email that James Murdoch somehow failed to read. The police parade will likely also include most of the NoTW’s second-tier bosses from the early 2000s, such as managing editor Stuart Kuttner, executive editor Neil Wallis and assistant editors Ian Edmondson and James Weatherup.

One of this gang of 11, may well be the author of a new damning email that surfaced in London’s High Court last week. According to David Sherborne, counsel for some of the 417 hacking victims still suing (or contemplating suing) News Group Newspapers, the message contains "an instruction relating to the telephone of a well-known individual" and is of "enormous significance". Or, in the words of another lawyer acting for the victims, Hugh Tomlinson QC, it is "absolutely crucial and important".

So who has been caught holding this smoking gun? According to Justice Vos, the email was sent by "an executive whose identity you know". But sadly we have not been told which one. The email was only produced to the court by Murdoch’s London lawyers, Linklaters, after police tipped off the victims. It was apparently discovered months ago, in March, but not handed over. So much for News’ full and frank co-operation in clearing up this mess.

Last night, the Met’s officer in charge of the phone-hacking and corruption investigations, Sue Akers, told the Leveson Inquiry that News was no longer being so helpful in handing stuff over to police either. In mid-May, News Corp’s Management & Standards Committee stopped disclosing material, said Akers. After a three-week hiatus, it resumed co-operation, but is now demanding police demonstrate why they should be given the material.

Meanwhile, speculation continues madly as to why Rupert has quit the boards of his British newspapers and News International, the company that runs them. One commentator called it "The end of an era"; US pundits preferred describing it as Rupert's "Saigon moment". And almost all except Murdoch’s latest biographer Michael Wolff agreed it was enormously significant, even if they weren’t quite sure why.

We’re a bit less impressionable than some of these folk and we reckon it won’t make much difference. It may make it easier for Britain’s regulator Ofcom to decide that News Corp is fit to hold the BSkyB licence but we doubt it; it may herald Murdoch’s sale of his newspapers, which we doubt even more; and it may well mean he’s turning his back on Britain, which is a bit more likely.

But whatever the reason - and it could be just he wants to lighten his load at 81 - we don’t think it adds up to much. As long as there are still phone lines from the US to the UK (and indeed from anywhere else in the world) Rupert is still going to be calling his editors every week to chew the fat, swap gossip and tell them where they’ve gone wrong. And whether he’s a director of News International or not he’ll still be the big boss at News Corp and he’s still be running the show.

meanwhile …..

The plot thickens as UK papers face new hacking claims ….

Glenn Dyer writes:

ANDY COULSON, LEVESON INQUIRY, MILLY DOWLER, NEWS INTERNATIONAL, NEWS OF THE WORLD PHONE HACKING SCANDAL, REBEKAH BROOKS

Britain's media crisis continues to grow, with more papers caught in an expanding police inquiry into bribery, new allegations of phone hacking (literally) involving the discredited News of the World and a decision tonight, our time, on whether 13 journalists will be charged with phone hacking and sent for trial.

From the evidence overnight by the police officer running the trio of inquiries, the scandal is growing and the outlook for at least three of Britain's major media groups, News International, Trinity and Mirror and Express Newspapers, has worsened as a result.

The new police claims though make you wonder about the intelligence of some in journalism. Faced with growing evidence that paying public officials for information is bad, being investigated by the Old Bill, you'd expect all such payments to be stopped. But no, evidence given to the Leveson inquiry overnight suggests that the managements of News International, Trinity and Mirror and Express Newspapers continued making payments to unnamed public officials through 2011, despite the widening three police inquiries into phone and computer hacking and corrupt payments to public officials.

Trinity Mirror is a listed public company and is the country's biggest newspaper owner, with more than 200 titles. Express Newspapers is controlled by Richard Desmond and, after Murdoch, is one of the more divisive of Britain's media proprietors, owning Express, Northern and Shell (which publishes magazines such as OK and papers such as The Star), Channel Five, the struggling commercial/public network (like Channel Four) and Portland Media, which has several X-rated pay-TV channels and other outlets.

And, police are investigating claims that some News International journalists had engaged unknown experts to hack into stolen mobile phones on at least two occasions in late 2010, well after the original phone-hacking claims that led to private detective Glenn Mulcaire and News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman being jailed. If substantiated, the claims confirm that News International executives, editors and spokespeople have been lying about the extent and duration of the hacking claims when they tried to argue that they had ended in 2006-07 with the jailing of the two. So much also for the claims by Rupert Murdoch and others in the empire that it was all down to rogue reporters and others.

These claims and the news that the corrupt payments continued through last year and into this year reveals that many at the top of large slabs of the UK media and its managers are stupid, corrupt and thought they were untouchable, despite evidence to the contrary. And when news that the police had started new inquiries, one of which was targeting corrupt payments, you would have thought alarm bells should have rung and all payments stopped. That News International could continue payments past last July tells us that this is a company full of unreconstructed fools.

In the cases of Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers, the payments continued into this year, despite the inquiries increasing the number of arrests of former journalists and the start of arrests of public officials. The inquiry was told that police had tracked the payments and matched them to specific stories in various newspapers. Now, four more newspapers were revealed to be under investigation for corrupt payments, in addition to the Murdoch-owned Sun, and the News of The World. They are the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Star and Star on Sunday (both owned by Express Newspapers).

"Further investigation has enabled us to identify stories in the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, Daily Star and Star on Sunday that are suspected to be linked to the payments," deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers said in a statement to the inquiry.

Desmond denied that such payments were made in is witness statement to the Leveson inquiry in which he said: "To the best of my knowledge, the newspapers have not used, paid or had any connection with private investigators in order to source stories or information and/or paid or received payments in kind for such information from the police, public officials, mobile phone companies or others with access to the same."

Akers heads Operation Weeting, the original phone-hacking investigation, and its offshoots (Operations Elveden and Tuleta) and told the inquiry that Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers had joined News International in being the focus of inquiries over payments to public officials. During evidence to the Leveson inquiry in February, Akers outlined details of payments of tens of thousands of pounds made by journalists to public officials. Her evidence overnight expanded on that in far more detail.

The Guardian reported that in one case "a prison officer at a high security prison, who has now retired, had allegedly received payments from News International, Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers totalling nearly 35,000 pounds", Akers told the Leveson inquiry on Monday.

Detectives have evidence which suggests that a notorious private detective agency carried out a burglary while working for the News of the World.

In the latest twist to the phone-hacking scandal, a police intelligence report indicates that Southern Investigations, based in south London, targeted the home of a newsworthy individual in an attempt to dig up salacious information.

The Independent has established that the material – the first suggested link between the News of the World and burglary – is being held by Operation Tuleta, the police inquiry into illegal newsgathering techniques other than phone hacking and corruption. It refers to a "sortie" carried out into a woman's home in Ascot, Berkshire, and mentions the name of Alex Marunchak – a long-serving executive on the News of the World.

A police assessment indicated that Southern Investigations or an associate had "gained unauthorised access into a private domestic premises with a view to gaining information on the resident".

Separately, a former undercover policeman who infiltrated Southern Investigations said that it burgled MPs' homes in an attempt to obtain embarrassing information for the newspaper. All those involved in Southern Investigations, and Mr Marunchak, deny any involvement in break-ins or knowledge of any illegal acts.

Tom Watson, the Labour politician who campaigned against phone hacking, said that, if proven to be evidence of burglary, the material showed further serious wrongdoing at the News of the World.

There have long been concerns that, as well as phone hacking and police corruption, burglaries took place in an attempt to land stories.

Several public figures whose voicemail messages were hacked by the newspaper, including the actor Hugh Grant, the Football Association executive David Davies, and Paul Stretford, Wayne Rooney's former agent, fell victim to break-ins where nothing was stolen. The Labour frontbencher Chris Bryant and other MPs are thought to have been similarly targeted.

The Independent does not know of evidence to connect break-ins at their homes to the News of the World. But the new evidence provides an apparent link between at least one burglary and the newspaper. Police obtained the material in 2002 during an investigation into one of Southern Investigations' two partners, Sid Fillery.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the agency, based in Thornton Heath, used corrupt police officers to supply information to newspaper groups, notably News International and Trinity Mirror. At the News of the World, its contact was Mr Marunchak.

In a statement to The Independent, Mr Marunchak denied he had any involvement in any illegal acts. He said: "I have never commissioned Southern Investigations or any other third party to carry out any burglaries or any illegal acts whatsoever. I have no knowledge of any alleged burglaries being committed by Southern Investigations."

When contacted. Mr Fillery, who now runs a pub in Norfolk, also issued a denial, saying: "It's most definitely not correct. Let me tell you about the News of the World – despite their reputation, they behaved very correctly. The only reason they employed us was to stand stories up. We committed no criminal offences."

The London Evening Standard quoted a former Metropolitan Police undercover officer, Derek Haslam, yesterday as saying that Southern Investigations burgled MPs' homes. Jonathan Rees, Mr Fillery's partner at Southern Investigations, told the newspaper: "He [Haslam] alleges that [Southern Investigations] burgled an MP's garage to remove a briefcase, photographed the contents of the briefcase and put that back. That's a lie."

A spokesman for Scotland Yard declined to discuss the progress of Operation Tuleta. A spokesman said: "We are not prepared to discuss any specific operational matters."

News International, Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group, said it would be "inappropriate" to comment while the police investigation was continuing.

Mr Watson, whose garage at his constituency home in West Bromwich was broken into and paperwork rifled through in 2009, said: "News Corporation in the UK stands accused of phone hacking, computer hacking, bribery, conspiring to pervert the course of justice, inappropriate covert surveillance, lies and cover-up. Now added to the list is the allegation of burglary.

"During the course of investigating phone hacking, I met many victims who had also suffered mysterious break-ins – burglaries where easily stolen valuables were left. I will be raising this in Parliament at the earliest opportunity

News Of The World Ordered Burglary

from Crikey ….

Dates set but long wait for phone-hacking justice

PAUL BARRY

The Power Index senior writer

If Rupert Murdoch was hoping for a quick end to the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, he won't be pleased by yesterday’s decision not to put Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson on trial until September 9 next year.

Worse still, if his two former editors go into the dock at London's Old Bailey with convicted hacker Glenn Mulcaire and five other ex-NotW journalists - charged with conspiracy to unlawfully intercept communications - the case could easily throw up damaging headlines for weeks and months after that.

By Christmas 2013, perhaps, the eight accused will finally know their fate, and be contemplating it from prison, or celebrating their escape with family and friends. But others will then follow.

First cab off the rank is likely to be a separate trial for Brooks and her husband, Charlie, plus her PA, chauffeur, security guard and the former head of security at News International, on charges of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. But that won’t be the last either.

The Metropolitan Police have now arrested 79 people in three linked investigations - operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta - into phone hacking (at the NotW), corrupt payments to police by journalists (at The Sun and the NotW), and computer hacking by private eyes (working mainly for The Sun). But so far only 13 of these people have been charged. Several more cases are currently being looked at by the Crown Prosecution Service which, according to the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, is "making decisions all the time". Many of these are likely to be current or former reporters on Murdoch's favourite tabloid The Sun, since they make up about half the 46 journalists arrested by police since mid-2011.

That will put yet more pressure on Rupert and his son, James, who was CEO of the British newspapers (including The Sun and NotW) from December 2007 until September 2009, and executive chairman for more than two years after that.

Meanwhile, the Met will pull out all the stops to get Brooks and Coulson behind bars, so they can justify the huge amount of effort and money spent on getting them to court. So far, the total cost of running Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta is 9 million, but it is forecast to top 40 million by the time the investigations are wound up in 2015. Akers told the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee three weeks ago that there are now 185 police officers and civilians working on the job and the priority is to get cases into court and get a result.

It will be no comfort to Rebekah Brooks and her ex-boss that Akers provided the inspiration for Helen Mirren's steely DCI Jane Tennison in the famous Granada TV series Prime Suspect. Unmarried at 55, and famous for chasing corruption in the police force, Akers shocked the Leveson inquiry by claiming there was "a culture at The Sun of illegal payments" and that "systems" had been created at the newspaper "to facilitate such payments whilst hiding the identity of the officials receiving the money".

Talk of "systems" doesn’t quite fit in with the trusty Murdoch defence of "one rogue reporter" that was relied on for so long in the phone-hacking scandal.

Akers told Leveson that one Sun journalist drew more than 150,000 from the paper over the years to pay his sources - hardly an amount one could hide. She also claimed The Sun had also established "a network of corrupt officials", keeping some of them on a regular retainer.

"The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials," Akers told Leveson. "These are cases ... involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists."

If any of these corruption cases comes to court, it will be fascinating to hear about those payment "systems" and about who at News International knew, or should have known, what was happening.

In similar vein, next September's phone-hacking trial may throw some light on the chain of command and subsequent cover up at the News of the World. One of the journalists facing trial with Brooks and Coulson, former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, has long made it clear that he is unlikely to go quietly. He turned down an offer of immunity from the police last year, claiming that investigations would clear him, but he may be tempted to rethink his decision as the trial draws near.

More than 50 victims of phone hacking, including a number of top celebrities, have written to David Cameron expressing fury at suggestions that the coalition government could reject tough new laws that would see the press policed by an independent regulator.

In a move designed to send the issue to the top of the agenda at the Tory conference, they warn the prime minister that trust in the media cannot be restored if the press is allowed to continue with a system of self-regulation.

Celebrities including Hugh Grant, Jude Law and Charlotte Church, as well as 7/7 victims and members of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, have signed an open letter expressing alarm at reports that Cameron intends to reject any form of statutory regulation of the press if such a recommendation is made by the Leveson inquiry.

The judge-led inquiry into the role and governance of the media was established by the prime minister in July last year in response to the phone-hacking scandal at the now defunct News of the World newspaper. Having spent more than a year collecting evidence, the inquiry is considering a range of recommendations that may include a proposal for the press to be subject to an independent regulator backed by law and with significant new powers.

But the Hacked Off campaign, which represents victims of hacking and other forms of newspaper intrusion, and has issued the open letter, said it had become "alarmed and distressed" by reports that Cameron had decided to give news-papers "another chance to improve self-regulation".

Sources close to the prime minister have been quoted as saying he "is likely to reject statutory intervention in regulation of the press, even if it is recommended by Lord Justice Leveson".

When asked to comment last month, the prime minister's spokesman said only that the stories were "speculation". However, Hacked Off warns that any rejection of the inquiry's potential recommendations before they have been submitted to government would be "a betrayal of us and your previous commitments".

When he established the Leveson inquiry, Cameron pledged that the test for the future system of press regulation was not whether it suited politicians or the press but "people who have been caught up and absolutely thrown to the wolves by this process".

Hacked Off said it had also been concerned by comments made by Tory ministers. Appearing before the inquiry, the education secretary, Michael Gove, argued against the statutory regulation of the press and urged Leveson to "consider carefully" his proposals. Theresa May, home secretary, has given a warning on possible "unintended consequences" if self-regulation were scrapped.

Such a move would spark fury among some of the largest newspaper groups and prompt claims that the press was in danger of being muzzled. But a failure to be seen to act after a long-running and costly inquiry that he established would expose Cameron to claims that he was in thrall to powerful interests, notably Rupert Murdoch.

An alternative way forward, advanced by Lord Black, the chairman of the Press Standards Board of Finance, would be for a new self-regulatory press body that had the power to launch investigations and levy fines of up to £1m.

But Hacked Off said victims believed that any proposal that did not have a "statutory backstop" was inadequate. It said that it was seeking reassurances from the prime minister that he had an "open mind" on the matter and had "not already decided in favour of a proposal for continued self-regulation which we believe to be unsatisfactory".

The letter concludes: "We look forward to hearing from you as a matter of urgency so that our minds can be put at rest and so that the public in general may know that your position on this vital matter has not changed."

Professor Brian Cathcart, director of Hacked Off, said it was crucial that the inquiry's recommendations were not prejudged. "The victims of press abuse who signed this letter are alarmed that, before Lord Justice Leveson has even had the chance to report, it is reported that his proposals will be rejected," Cathcart said.

"It is hard to believe that the prime minister, who, after all, set up the inquiry, could really have taken such a decision. The judge has spent a year investigating press culture, ethics and practices; his recommendations, when published, surely deserve to be considered with open minds and with the greatest seriousness."

Dominic Crossley, who represented the families of Milly Dowler and Madeleine McCann at the inquiry, said that it must be kept free from politics. "If Leveson's recommendations, whatever they may be, are ignored or diminished for purely political reasons, in face of what we heard of the relationship between the press and politicians, it would truly be scandalous," Crossley said. Church and Jacqui Hames, the former Metropolitan police officer who was targeted by private investigators working for the News of the World, will discuss their concerns with Cameron on Tuesday at the Tory party conference.

"We await Lord Leveson's independent report, the content of which is a matter for him," a Downing Street spokesman said.

Phone Hacking Victims' Anger At PM's 'Betrayal'

Evidence from a “supergrass” is understood to have prompted today’s arrests of the former Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver and three other executives from the Mirror Group on suspicion of phone hacking.

An insider with knowledge of the workings of a number of tabloid titles is thought to have handed the Metropolitan Police significant new information about the Sunday Mirror and the News of the World.

Scotland Yard is also thought to have obtained evidence from a recent exchange of emails between a small group of current and former Mirror Group executives. Detectives have already drawn up a list of preliminary list of possible victims whose voicemails may have been illegally accessed by Mirror Group journalists. The disclosures have opened a new front in Scotland Yard’s inquiries into illegal news-gathering by tabloid journalists.

Trinity Mirror shares plunged 20 per cent on the London stock exchange, wiping £60m from the firm’s value. Earlier in the day the company announced a 75 per cent fall in profits.

At 6am today, detectives from Operation Weeting raided the homes of Mrs Weaver, who edited the Sunday Mirror for 11 years, until she was ousted last year in a surprise move, and her former deputy (and former People editor) Mark Thomas.

James Scott, current editor of the Sunday Mirror’s sister paper the Sunday People, and his deputy Nick Buckley, both based in the paper’s offices in London’s Docklands, were also arrested. They are the most senior serving journalists to be arrested in the police inquiries into press misbehaviour, which have so far led to more than 100 arrests.

All four were taken to police stations in London and questioned about a new alleged conspiracy to trawl the voicemails of newsworthy individuals for stories.

The operation cast a further shadow over Trinity Mirror, which owns both the Sunday Mirror and the People along with the Daily Mirror and scores of regional newspapers.

Until today Britain’s second-biggest newspaper group had largely avoided being dragged into the hacking scandal which has trashed the reputation of Rupert Murdoch’s News International and cost its owners at least £250m.

Scotland Yard said it was in the process of identifying a new series of victims of hacking “mainly” by the Sunday Mirror during 2003 and 2004. Since the Leveson Inquiry started last year, Trinity Mirror has held two internal investigations into phone hacking. A review headed by Paul Vickers, the company secretary and a barrister, questioned senior journalists.

The former chief executive, Sly Bailey, subsequently told Lord Justice Leveson that Mirror Group was a “healthy” company and there was no evidence any Mirror Group journalist had ever broken the law.

Simon Fox, who took over after the departure of Ms Bailey, was forced by shareholders to hold another probe when civil actions over alleged hacking were lodged last October. Again all Mirror journalists were described as working within the law.

But The Independent understands that the company was told last year that police investigating possible hacking by Mirror Group journalists were concentrating on obtaining an “insider” account, and that arrests could be imminent.

The arrests were approved after an apparent supergrass familiar with both the News of the World and Mirror Group titles began providing information to police.

Officers are also examining a sequence of emails between key former and current Mirror Group personnel. It is believed the emails were sent recently. A Mirror Group spokesmen said the company was “co-operating with the police”, but it is understood that no emails have been handed to police by the firm.

Last year The Independent revealed details of evidence held by Scotland Yard which identified a former Mirror Group executive as paying a private investigations firm up to £125 a time for mobile phone numbers and pin access codes two years before phone hacking became a routine practice at the News of the World.

Police sources confirmed that Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England football manager, Shobna Gulati, the former Coronation Street actress, Abbie Gibson, the nanny of David and Victoria Beckham, and the former captain of Blackburn Rovers football club had been identified in the preliminary list of potential victims of Mirror Group hacking. Claims for invasion of privacy against Trinity Mirror by Mr Eriksson and the three others were lodged in the High Court last year. Trinity Mirror has applied to strike out the claims.

Last month police arrested six journalists from the features department of the News of the World over “a further conspiracy” to hack phones.

Explaining the arrests, Scotland Yard said: “Detectives on Operation Weeting have identified and are investigating a suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails at Mirror Group Newspapers. This conspiracy is being treated as a separate conspiracy to the two being investigated at the News of the World.”

'Supergrass' Takes Hacking Scandal Into New Territory