Sara Payne ‘let down by her trusted friend’

The mother of murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne has now discovered that she could have been a phone hacking victim of a private investigator used by the tabloid.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s inquiry have now told her that her contact details have been found on a list compiled by Glenn Mulcaire.

This latest revelation adds more pressure on News Corporation as MPs warned that James Murdoch could be called back to face another select committee hearing amid claims that he was aware of an email indicating that phone hacking at the News of the World was not confined to a single “rogue” reporter as long ago as 2008. He denied this last week when questioned by the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee.

It also emerged yesterday the US Attorney General will meet families of 9/11 victims next month over allegations that victims of the terrorist attacks in 2001 could also have had their phones hacked.

Ms Payne was said to be devastated when she was told that her phone could have been targeted.

Her child welfare group, the Phoenix Chief Advocates issued a statement which said: “While it was previously confirmed by Operation Weeting that Sara Payne’s name was not on private investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s list, it has now been confirmed by the Operation Weeting that Sara’s details are on his list. Sara is absolutely devastated by this news. “We’re all deeply disappointed and are just working to get her through it.

“Sara will continue to work with the proper authorities regarding this matter.”

It is believed the phone number in question was actually given to Ms Payne by the News of the World so she could contact her supporters.

She became a tireless campaigner on child abuse issues after her eight-year-old daughter was murdered by paedophile Roy Whiting in 2000.

Ms Payne wrote a column for the final issue of the News of the World earlier this month when it closed amid growing political and commercial pressure following the phone hacking scandal.

Describing the paper as “an old friend”, she described how it became a driving force behind her campaign for a “Sarah’s law” to give parents the right to find out if people with access to their children are sex offenders.

“We did not meet under the best of circumstances,” she wrote. “In fact, it was the worst, most horrendous time in my life. But from that moment on the News of the World and more importantly the people there became my very good and trusted friends.

“And like all good friends they have stuck with me through the good and the bad and helped me through both.”

Rebekah Brooks, who edited the News of the World when it campaigned for Sarah’s Law to be established and is among those who have been arrested by officers involved in the inquiry, said: “It is imperative for Sara and the other victims of crime that these allegations are investigated and those culpable brought to justice.”

Shadow Culture Secretary Ivan Lewis said: “This shocking news about the hacking of Sara Payne’s phone will ignite anger and revulsion across the country.

“The newspaper which championed Sara’s campaign for Sarah’s law invading her privacy in such a cruel way, raises further serious questions about what was happening at the News of the World on Rebekah Brooks’s watch.”

The revelation about the potential targeting of Ms Payne follows allegations the News of the World illegally accessed the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, 7/7 victims’ relatives and grieving military families.

Mulcaire and ex-News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman were both jailed over phone hacking in January 2007. Former NoTW editor Andy Coulson, who quit as the Prime Minister’s press spokesman in January, is also among those who have been arrested since the new inquiry began this year.