Hacking exclusive: Queen’s police sold her details to News of the World
Personal details about the Queen and her closest aides were sold to the News of the World by corrupt royal protection officers, the Standard reveals today.
The information included phone numbers and tips about the movements and activities of the Queen, Prince Philip and staff in a serious breach of national security. The payments, and involvement of the royal and diplomatic protection squad, were uncovered by News International in 2007.
But despite the potential risk to security they were not passed on to the Met until last month. Scotland Yard was only informed after other News International bosses discovered the existence of the emails during a separate internal probe set up to uncover evidence of phone hacking. There are hundreds of royal protection officers.
The disclosure that News International failed to pass on information revealing criminal activity by royal protection officers will raise serious new questions about the company’s conduct and heap further pressure on Rupert Murdoch after his arrival in London to tackle the crisis.