The parents of a murdered schoolgirl on Monday testified at a U.K. government inquiry into press ethics, media reports said.
Years ago, a private detective working for News of the World hacked into the voicemail of 13-year-old Milly Dowler after she went missing. The mother of the girl, Sally Dowler, said that after the private detective deleted some of Milly’s voicemails; she was given false hope.
Describing the first time she was able to access the voicemail, which had previously been full, Dowler told the inquiry on Monday, “I just jumped and said: ‘She’s picked up her voicemails ... she’s alive,’” according to BBC. “I told my friends, ‘She’s picked up her voicemail, she’s picked up her voicemail’” she said.
Nine years later, during the trial of her killer, police told the parents that her daughter’s phone had been hacked.
“As soon as I was told it was about phone hacking, literally I didn’t sleep for about three nights because you replay everything in your mind and just think, ‘Oh, that makes sense now, that makes sense,’” Mrs. Dowler said.
The inquiry, called the Leveson Inquiry, will look first at the relations and conduct of media, politicians, and law enforcement. The second part of the inquiry will examine the illegal conduct of media organizations, BBC reported.
