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BUSINESS DECEMBER 13, 2011 U.K. Police: No Evidence Paper Deleted Girl's Messages

By JEANNE WHALEN And CASSELL BRYAN-LOW

LONDON—London's said it had no evidence that the tabloid was responsible for deleting voice-mail messages of 13-year-old Milly Dowler shortly after her disappearance in 2002, an allegation that helped set off a firestorm of criticism against the News Corp. publication this summer.

News Corp.'s now-closed tabloid came under intense criticism for the practice of illegally intercepting voice-mail messages of celebrities, politicians and other public figures in pursuit of information.

Public outrage spiked, however, when it was alleged that the paper in 2002 not only hacked the voice mail of the missing teenager—who later was found dead—but also deleted messages. The deletion of messages gave the Dowlers false hope that the girl was still alive.

While it is still undisputed that the tabloid intercepted the girl's voice- mail messages, a lawyer for the Metropolitan Police said Monday that it was "unlikely" that News of the World deleted messages left in the days after her disappearance. While police are still investigating the matter, the most likely scenario is that the girl's phone automatically deleted the messages after they were 72 hours old, the lawyer said.

Milly Dowler was found murdered in September 2002. An article in in July of this year was the first to report that the News of the World had hacked Milly Dowler's phone and deleted her messages. These allegations, along with others against the paper, prompted News Corp. to close the News of the World and the Sean Dempsey/Press Pool government to order a judge-led inquiry into media ethics. News Lord Justice Brian Leveson. Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.

News Corp. and its chairman, , have apologized to the Dowler family for targeting her phone for hacking and agreed to pay the Dowlers and various charities £3 million ($4.7 million).

A judge leading the inquiry on media ethics, Lord Justice Brian Leveson, on Monday called the new information about the voice-mail deletions "of significance" because it was partly public outrage over the voice-mail deletions that led the government to commission the inquiry. "I do think some thought has got to be given to how this picture has been put together so that we can see what…is the proper conclusion to reach about what happened in 2002," he said, adding that police might need to submit additional evidence on the matter.

Over the weekend, the Guardian amended its original story from July to say that new evidence has "led police to conclude that the News of the World was not responsible for the deletion of voicemails from Milly Dowler's mobile phone that caused her parents to have false hopes that she was alive." In a statement Monday, a Guardian spokeswoman said: "We welcome the steps Lord Justice Leveson has taken to establish the facts about the deletion of

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voicemails on Milly Dowler's phone....The Guardian responsibly reported the facts as they were known in July. When new evidence emerged relating to the deletion of the voicemails, the Guardian was first to report it."

A lawyer for the Dowler family told the inquiry Monday that it is still possible a News of the World journalist deleted the voice mails. He said he is aware of evidence that a News of the World journalist knew Milly Dowler's mobile-phone number and PIN code at the time. The lawyer, David Sherborne, said police in the county of Surrey know the name of this journalist, and that they should give more evidence to the about how the deletions happened.

A spokesman for the Surrey police declined to comment Monday, saying it would be inappropriate while the Metropolitan Police are still investigating .

In addition to the public inquiry and the criminal investigation, News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper unit, News International, also faces a slew of civil suits filed in U.K. courts by people who claim the News of the World breached their privacy by intercepting voice mails. As of early October, 65 suits had been filed against the company's News Group unit, which had published the tabloid. The company has agreed to settle at least a handful of those suits.

In the most recent development, a lawyer for Labour politician and former government minister on Monday said she had agreed with the company to settle for £200,000. Ms. Jowell's lawyer, Tamsin Allen of Bindmans LLP in London, said in a written statement that the agreement was made last week and that it will be formalized by the court shortly. Ms. Allen added that half of the £200,000 sum will be paid directly to charity.

As previously reported, the company has already agreed to pay actress £100,000 plus legal costs to resolve her claim.

A News International spokeswoman declined to comment on an agreement with Ms. Jowell.The spokeswoman also declined to say what the total number of suits filed against the company currently is or how many have been settled. News Corp. admitted liability in some cases in April and apologized for wrongdoing.

Write to Jeanne Whalen at [email protected] and Cassell Bryan-Low at cassell.bryan [email protected]

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203430404577094631103940306.html 12/13/2011