by Joseph W
Channel 4 News reports:
The phone hacking scandal has claimed its next victim – the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson. In a live broadcast he read out the below statement explaining his reasons for standing down. […]
Interesting:
In 2009 the Met entered into a contractual arrangement with Neil Wallis, terminating in 2010. I played no role in the letting or management of that contract.
I have heard suggestions that we must have suspected the alleged involvement of Mr Wallis in phone hacking. Let me say unequivocally that I did not and had no reason to have done so. I do not occupy a position in the world of journalism; I had no knowledge of the extent of this disgraceful practice and the repugnant nature of the selection of victims that is now emerging; nor of its apparent reach into senior levels.
I saw senior figures from News International providing evidence that the misbehaviour was confined to a rogue few and not known about at the top.
One can only wonder about the motives of those within the newspaper industry or beyond, who now claim that they did know but kept quiet.
Boris Johnson reacts:
