At the time, Detective Dave Cook was investigating the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator, found in the car park of a south London pub in 1987 with an axe buried in his head. After becoming aware that he was under surveillance, Detective Cook mobilised a police counter-surveillance unit, which discovered it was News of the World conducting the surveillance.
Suspects in the Daniel Morgan murder case included other private investigators who allegedly had close links to News of the World. The case has never been successfully brought to court. It collapsed for the fifth time in March 2011 amid suspicion of police corruption in the early years of the investigation.
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.
These new allegations comes as News of the World is under fire for allegedly hacking the mobile phone of a murdered 13-year-old girl after she had disappeared and deleting voicemail messages left on her phone.
David Cameron condemned the hacking and said police should investigate the issue “without any worry about were the evidence should lead them”.
“On the question about the really appalling allegations about the telephone of Milly Dowler, if they are true, this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation,” he said.
“What I read in the papers is quite, quite shocking, that someone could do this actually knowing the police were trying to find this person and trying to find out what had happened, and we all now know the tragedy that took place.”
This latest scandal may affect News Corp’s planned takeover of British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) in a deal thought to be worth around £9 billion. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt gave the deal the go-ahead last week on condition Sky News keep its independence.
The government is expected to give final approval to the deal later this week.
