Documents that might have revealed whether John Stevens, the former Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), frequently met with senior Editors of News of the World and other executives of Rupert Murdoch's news operations in the U.K. have suddenly gone missing, the London Independent reported today (Thursday). Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the police agency said that it had been "unable to locate the diary of Lord Stevens and cannot therefore answer your questions in relation to him." The FOI request had been filed by Ian Hurst, a former army intelligence officer, who claims that his voicemail was hacked by News of the World reporters and private detectives. In reporting The Missing documents, the Independent observed, "Officials investigating the disappearance of the diaries will have to decide if there has been a breach of the Data Protection Act." The Information Commissioner's Office confirmed that all of Stevens's diaries are missing from 2000 to 2005. A special inquiry is looking into allegations that police sold information to News of the World and aborted an investigation into the hacking charges in 2006 in order to maintain a favorable and useful relationship with the tabloid's reporters.

06/10/2011