Former Fire Brigades Union chief Andy Gilchrist has made allegations against The Sun which it has vehemently denied surrounding the 2002/2003 industrial dispute involving his union and he has asked the Met Police to investigate them.
Gilchrist told the Independent: “I have no doubt that during the 2002 and 2003 dispute I was the subject of a considerable amount of newspaper skulduggery…I have asked the police to investigate…”
A News International spokesman told the paper: “There is absolutely nothing to suggest the appearance of these articles was linked to the interception of voicemail. News International has made it clear that, if there is any evidence of wrongdoing, swift and decisive action will be taken.”
Former Labour MP Paul Marsden has asked solicitors to investigate the allegation that his phone was hacked by a Daily Mirror journalist in 2003.
The News of the World is facing a deluge of new claims dating from the pre-2007 Goodman and Mulcaire period – and one claim, which it strongly denies, that a journalist was involved in voice-mail hacking last year.
For chapter and verse on phone-hacking, see Press Gazette’s interactive timeline.
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