After Milly Dowler outrage, now Soham parents are quizzed over News of The World phone hacking

THE parents of murdered schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman have been contacted by detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World.

A police source said relatives of the two children murdered by Ian Huntley were visited by Scotland Yard officers several months ago.

A Cambridgeshire Police spokesman said: “Both families have been contacted by officers from the Metropolitan Police and are assisting with them with their inquiries.”

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The families are understood to be seeking further clarification from Scotland Yard before making any comment.

Former school caretaker Huntley is serving a life term for the 2002 murders of Jessica and Holly, both 10, in Soham. Huntley’s throat was slashed with a makeshift knife in Frankland Prison, Durham, in March last year.

Allegations of hacking in the Soham case were first aired by Labour MP Tom Watson.

But the Cambridgeshire police statement is the first time it has been confirmed that the phone hacking inquiry, Operation Weeting, is looking at the Soham case.

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Holly’s parents, Kevin and Nicola, and Jessica’s mother and father, Leslie and Sharon Chapman, said after Huntley’s trial that they were haunted by the murders “each and every day”.

Holly and Jessica went missing on August 4 2002 after leaving the Wells family home to buy sweets.

A picture of them wearing identical Manchester United shirts sparked an international search but their bodies were found a fortnight later in a ditch.

Meanwhile, the car maker Ford announced today that it had pulled its advertising from the News of the World following allegations that a private investigator working for the paper hacked into the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler after she went missing.

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News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks said she was “appalled and shocked” by the allegations.

Ms Brooks, who was editor of the paper at the time, said it was “inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations”.

And she dismissed speculation about her position, saying: “I am determined to lead the company to ensure we do the right thing and resolve these serious issues.”

Ms Brooks spoke out in a message to News International staff after David Cameron condemned the alleged hacking as a “truly dreadful act”.

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The Prime Minister, who found himself being quizzed about the story during a trip to Afghanistan, said he found the claims “quite, quite shocking”.

Milly’s parents are suing the News of the World over claims a private investigator working for the newspaper hacked into her phone after she went missing.

Bob and Sally Dowler said they had been given “false hope” their daughter could still be alive after voicemail messages on the phone were deleted in the days after she vanished.

Solicitor Mark Lewis said the “heinous” and “despicable” actions could have jeopardised the police investigation.

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Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire is alleged to have illegally accessed Milly’s phone messages after she was abducted by Levi Bellfield as she walked home from school in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in March 2002.

The voicemail messages were allegedly deleted to make room for more after Milly’s inbox became full.

Mr Lewis said the Dowlers had been told their own phones were targeted, as well as that of their daughter.

Mulcaire and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman were given jail terms in January 2007 after the Old Bailey heard they plotted to hack into royal aides’ telephone messages.

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At the time of Milly’s disappearance, Andy Coulson, who resigned in January as Mr Cameron’s media adviser, was the News of the World’s deputy editor while Ms Brooks was the editor.

Bellfield, 43, was given a second whole life jail term last month for 13-year-old Milly’s murder.

As the scandal grew, the Press Complaints Commission, a keystone of the system of press self-regulation in the UK, accused the News of the World of lying during an inquiry into hacking allegations.

PCC chairman Baroness Buscombe told the BBC’s Daily Politics show: “We didn’t have the evidence. I am the regulator but there is only so much we can do when people are lying to us.

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“We know now that I was not being given the truth by the News of the World. Who knows if there are other newspapers that have lied.”

In her statement Ms Brooks said she wanted to address staff “as a matter of urgency” in light of the new claims.

She said: “We were all appalled and shocked when we heard about these allegations yesterday.

“I have to tell you that I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened. Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowler’s family is unforgivable.

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“Our first priority must be to establish the full facts behind these claims.

“I have written to Mr and Mrs Dowler this morning to assure them News International will vigorously pursue the truth and that they will be the first to be informed of the outcome of our investigation.

“Our lawyers have also written to their solicitor Mark Lewis to ask him to show us any of the evidence he has so we can swiftly take the appropriate action.

“At the moment we only know what we have read.

“Since 2006, when the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) seized the documentation from the private investigator Glen Mulcaire, News International has had no visibility on the evidence available.

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“The process of discovery is complicated. The MPS first present relevant documents to potential victims. We only see the evidence much later during the legal process.”

She said NI has offered the MPS its full co-operation “to establish the veracity of these fresh allegations” and had written to the Chief Constable of Surrey, where Milly lived, with the same offer.

She went on: “I am determined that News International does everything it can to co-operate fully and pro-actively with the MPS, as we have been doing for some time, to verify the facts so we can respond in a robust and proper way.

“It is almost too horrific to believe that a professional journalist or even a freelance inquiry agent working on behalf of a member of the News of the World staff could behave in this way.

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“If the allegations are proved to be true then I can promise the strongest possible action will be taken as this company will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour.

“I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.”

She added: “Although these difficult times will continue for many months ahead, I want you to know that News International will pursue the facts with vigour and integrity.

“I am aware of the speculation about my position. Therefore it is important you all know that as chief executive, I am determined to lead the company to ensure we do the right thing and resolve these serious issues.

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“We will face up to the mistakes and wrongdoing of the past and we will do our utmost to see that justice is done and those culpable will be punished.”

Mr Cameron earlier urged the police to pursue their criminal investigation into alleged phone hacking by journalists in “the most vigorous way they can”.

Speaking in Kabul, he said: “The police in our country are quite rightly independent, they should feel that they should investigate this without any fear, without favour, without any worry about where the evidence should lead,” he said.

“They should pursue this in the most vigorous way that they can in order to get to the truth of what happened.”

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But he made clear that he would not intervene in the bid by the News of the World’s parent company - Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation - to take a majority stake in BSkyB.

“The Government, on these processes, is acting in a quasi-judicial way and it is quite right that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Jeremy Hunt) carries out his role in that manner without any interference from anyone else in the Government,” he said.

“That is one of the reasons that I have completely abstracted myself from this process and want him to carry out his role in the way that he should under the law.”

Publicist Max Clifford offered a robust defence of the News International boss, insisting she was unlikely to have known about the alleged hacking of the schoolgirl’s phone.

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Though in charge of the “overall picture,” he said she may not have known “every detail” about the day-to-day goings on under her editorship.

“I have known Rebekah Brooks a long, long time and I know I would find it very, very hard to believe that she in any way knew anything like this,” he said.

“Knowing her as well as I do and knowing the way newspapers work, I believe that if these allegations were true, that Glen Mulcaire was doing this off his own back.”

He said the private investigator’s activities still remained unclear, adding: “We don’t know that she knew every detail of what Glen Mulcaire was up to.

“From speaking to a lot of people inside News International and other papers, it isn’t as black and white as that.”