Report: NoW ‘targeted Sara Payne’s phone’

The News of the World has been accused of targeting the mobile phone of Sara Payne, the woman whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was murdered in 2000.

According to The Guardian, officers from Scotland Yard’s phone-hacking unit Operation Weeting have informed Payne they hold evidence suggesting she was targeted by NoW private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

A report on guardian.co.uk this afternoon said:

Police had earlier told her correctly that her name was not among those recorded in Mulcaire’s notes, but on Tuesday officers from Operation Weeting told her they had found her personal details among the investigator’s notes. These had previously been thought to refer to a different target.

The paper also reports that the evidence found in Mulcaire’s notebook related to a ‘phone given to Sara Payne by Rebekah Brooks as a gift to help her stay in touch with her supporters”.

Payne wrote a column in the final edition of the News of the World, which led the campaign for ‘Sarah’s Law’ to identify where convicted sex offenders live, in which she she wrote:

We have all seen the news this week and the terrible things that have happened, and I have no wish to sweep it under the carpet. Indeed, there were rumours – which turned out to be untrue – that I and my fellow Phoenix charity chiefs had our phones hacked. But today is a day to reflect, to look back and remember the passing of an old friend, the News of the World.