The Milly Dowler murder undoubtedly brought out the very worst in British journalism.

Not only does it appear that a detective working for the News of the World hacked the phone messages of the murdered 13-yearold when police had yet to find her body in 2002.

But in June this year, the ‘avalanche’of publicity around the conviction of Levi Bellfield for Milly’s murder led to a second charge relating to the attempted kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl being dropped.