Leveson inquiry told hacking of Milly Dowler's phone 'despicable'

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Source: The Guardian

Milly Dowler's mother reacted with "euphoria" when she found that messages on her daughter's phone had been deleted, the Leveson inquiry into press standards heard.

Sally Dowler and her husband Bob, who will give evidence to the inquiry in person on Monday, later sued the News of the World when it was revealed that it was the paper that had illegally accessed their daughter's phone, deleting some voicemails to make space for more and, in the process, giving them false hope that she was alive.

"Perhaps there are no words which can adequately describe how despicable this act was," their barrister, David Sherborne said. He also told the inquiry that the couple believed the paper had been able to gain information about their movements because "their voicemails … were being listened to".

A front-page story published in the paper on 12 May 2002, five days after Milly went missing, was published under the headline: "The Longest Walk". It included photos of the Dowlers retracing their missing daughter's last steps. Sherborne said the paper only knew they were taking that walk in Walton-on-Thames – as "a way of coming to terms with their private grief" – because their phones had been targeted. "Their moment of grief was obviously a photo opportunity too good to resist," he added.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/nov/16/leveson-inquiry-milly-dowler-phonehacking