Actor Hugh Grant, an alleged victim of illegal phone-hacking by the News of the World, has turned the tables on his tabloid tormentors after secretly recording a former NoW reporter claiming that former editor Rebekah Brooks knew all about the practice.
The actor makes the allegations in an article in this week's New Statesman, which is guest-edited by his former partner, Jemima Khan. In his column, Grant says he first met former NoW hack Paul McMullan - who now runs a pub in Dover - when he broke down in Kent last Christmas. McMullan, who blew the whistle on phone hacking at the News of the World, pulled over and took some photos of the stranded actor before offering him a lift.
During the journey, McMullan talked about phone hacking and confirmed to Grant that he had been a victim. He also asked Grant to drop in on his pub - an invitation the actor decided to accept after being commissioned by Khan.
However, this time he would go prepared - with a hidden microphone.
In the transcript, which is available in full in the print version of the New Statesman, McMullan says Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World between 2000 and 2003 and is now CEO of NoW publisher News International, "absolutely" knew about phone hacking at the paper. McMullan goes even further, claiming that prime minister David Cameron - who he says goes horse riding with Brooks - probably knew as well.
"Not only did she know, but Cameron must have known - that's the bigger scandal," says McMullan. "He had to jump into bed with Murdoch as everyone had, starting with Thatcher in the 1970s."
McMullan also fingers the police, who have been criticised for dragging their feet over the phone hacking investigation, saying that "20 per cent of the [Metropolitan police] has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks".
As for whether Brooks's boss Rupert Murdoch knew about phone hacking, McMullan thinks not. "He's a funny bloke given that he owns the Sun and the Screws [the nickname for the NoW]... quite puritanical," he says.
Grant's spectacular scoop looks likely to give new urgency to attempts in the House of Lords to derail Murdoch's attempt to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB he doesn't already own. As the Mole reports in The First Post today, Lord Prescott said: "It would be totally unacceptable for a company... committing criminal acts to take total control of BSkyB."
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