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Jonathan Rees is a British private investigator, and former partner of murdered private investigator Daniel Morgan.
Born in September 1954 in Doncaster, Yorkshire, Rees left school and joined the Merchant Navy, then became an investigator. In 1984, with partner Daniel Morgan, he set up a detective agency, Southern Investigations, in Thornton Heath, Surrey. [1]
In April 1987, Rees was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Daniel Morgan but was released without charge. [2]
Between Morgan's death in 1987 and 2008, five police inquiries were conducted, at a cost to date[ when? ] of £140 million. There were allegations of police corruption, drug trafficking and robbery. [3]
After an inquiry by Hampshire police in 1988, Rees and another man were charged with murder, but the case did not reach trial when charges were dropped because of a lack of evidence, [2] and the Hampshire inquiry's 1989 report to the Police Complaints Authority found "no evidence whatsoever of police involvement in the murder". [1]
In 1998, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Roy Clark conducted a third, secret, inquiry into the murder during which Southern Investigations' office was bugged by a known paid police informer. [2] In December 2000, Rees was found guilty of conspiring to plant cocaine on an innocent woman in order to discredit her in a child custody battle and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice. [1] [2]
After the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair declared that the first police inquiry—that had included Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, stationed at Catford police station—was "compromised", a secret fifth inquiry began. [2] Later, police arrested Jonathan Rees and several others on suspicion of murder, along with a serving police officer suspected of leaking information. [3]
In 2009 the trial began at the Old Bailey. In March 2011 the Director of Public Prosecutions abandoned the case and the three accused were acquitted, [2] including Rees. [4]
The case involved some of the longest legal arguments submitted in a trial in the English criminal courts. Nicholas Hilliard QC, for the prosecution, said that defence lawyers might not be able to examine all the documents in the case (750,000 pages dating back over 24 years) in order to ensure a fair trial. [4]
After the collapse of the Old Bailey trial in March 2011 it was revealed that Rees had earned £150,000 a year from the News of the World for supplying illegally obtained information about people in the public eye. [4] [5]
After Rees completed his prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, he was hired again by the News of the World, at the time edited by Andy Coulson. [4] Rees worked regularly on behalf of the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror , [2] as well as the News of the World, investigating the bank accounts of the royal family, [2] and obtaining information on other public figures. [2] He had a network of contacts with corrupt police officers, [2] who obtained confidential records for him. He was routinely able to obtain confidential data from bank accounts, telephone records, car registration details and computers. [2] He was also alleged to have commissioned burglaries on behalf of journalists. [4]
In June 2011 The Guardian newspaper, calling for a public inquiry into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, focused its criticism of the parent company News Corporation's handling of accusations of criminality within the organisation on the newspaper's use of Rees's investigative services. [6] Rees's activities were described as a "devastating pattern of illegal behaviour", [6] and far exceeding those of any of the other investigators commissioned by News Corporation who used illicit means to target prominent figures. [6] They included unauthorised access to computer data and bank accounts, corruption of police officers and alleged commissioning of burglaries. [2] The Guardian queried why the Metropolitan Police had chosen to exclude a very large quantity of Rees material from investigation by its Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking. [6]
Following in excess of three years on bail, Rees and others were told all charges related to Operation Kalmyk and Operation Tuleta would be "no further actioned". This, in turn, focused attention on the credibility of Ian Hurst (Martin Ingram). The Guardian had published extensively on Rees's involvement with corrupt police officers and the procurement of confidential information for what Guardian journalist Nick Davies described as Rees's one "golden source" of income in particular, commissions from the News of the World. [5] Davies has reported at length on what he described as the "empire of corruption" that Rees and Sid Fillery built in the years following Daniel Morgan's murder, after Fillery replaced Morgan as Rees's partner. [5]
In October 2014 Rees, along with others charged in 2009 and acquitted in 2011 (former Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, brothers Glenn and Garry Vian, and builder James Cook) launched a £4 million lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police. [7] In February 2017 the High Court ruled on the lawsuit. Rees and the Vians lost their claim, but Fillery was awarded £25,000 in interim damages with a higher amount to be determined later. [8] The Rees and Vians appeal was heard in 2018. [9] In 2019 Rees and the Vians were awarded damages of £414,000 after winning their malicious prosecution case against the Metropolitan Police. [10]
Rebekah Mary Brooks is a British media executive and former journalist and newspaper editor. She has been chief executive officer of News UK since 2015. She was previously CEO of News International from 2009 to 2011 and was the youngest editor of a British national newspaper at News of the World, from 2000 to 2003, and the first female editor of The Sun, from 2003 to 2009. Brooks married actor Ross Kemp in 2002. They divorced in 2009 and she married former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks.
Andrew EdwardCoulson is an English journalist and political strategist.
John Yates is a former Assistant Commissioner in the London Metropolitan Police Service (2006–2011). As leader of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS)'s Special Inquiry Squad, Yates was dubbed "Yates of the Yard" by the British press following his involvement in a number of cases with high media profiles. Yates came to particular prominence for heading the Cash for Honours investigation. Yates also coordinated the UK police response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, heading "Operation Bracknell", for which he was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in January 2006. He resigned in July 2011 over criticism of a July 2009 review he carried out of the 2006 police investigation of the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal. He now works for the government of Bahrain advising it on reform of its security forces.
Neil John Wallis is a British former newspaper editor. He is currently a media consultant and media commentator.
The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct News of the World and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper engaged in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of stories.
Operation Weeting was a British police investigation that commenced on 26 January 2011, under the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of phone hacking in the News of the World phone hacking affair. The operation was conducted alongside Operation Elveden, an investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to the police by those involved with phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta, an investigation into alleged computer hacking for the News of the World. All three operations are led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, Head of Organised Crime & Criminal Networks within the Specialist Crime Directorate.
Operation Motorman was a 2003 investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office into allegations of offences under the Data Protection Act by the British press.
Daniel John Morgan was a British private investigator who was murdered with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, London, in 1987. Despite several Metropolitan Police investigations, arrests, and trial, the crime remains unsolved. An independent review into the handling of the investigation of Morgan's killing was published in 2021; it found that the Met Police had "a form of institutional corruption" which had concealed or denied failings in the case.
Operation Elveden was a British police investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police officers and other public officials. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investigation.
The News Corporation scandal involves phone, voicemail, and computer hacking that were allegedly committed over a number of years. The scandal began in the United Kingdom, where the News International phone hacking scandal has to date resulted in the closure of the News of the World newspaper and the resignation of a number of senior members of the Metropolitan Police force.
The News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations followed the revelations in 2005 of voicemail interception on behalf of News of the World. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011. However, the affair did not end there, developing into the News Corporation ethics scandal as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World and beyond phone hacking came to light.
In mid-2011, out of a series of investigations following up the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal of 2005–2007, a series of related scandals developed surrounding other News Corporation properties—where initially the scandal appeared contained to a single journalist at the News of the World, investigations eventually revealed a much wider pattern of wrongdoing. This led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011, an apology by Rupert Murdoch in an advertisement in most British national newspapers, and the withdrawing of News Corporation's bid to take over the majority of BSkyB shares it did not own.
The news media phone hacking scandal is a controversy over illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations that reportedly occurred in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2011. This article includes reference lists for various topics relating to that scandal.
This article provides a narrative beginning in 1999 of investigations by the Metropolitan Police Service (Met) of Greater London into the illegal acquisition of confidential information by agents in collaboration with the news media that is commonly referred to as the phone hacking scandal. The article discusses seven phases of investigations by the Met and several investigations of the Met itself, including critiques and responses regarding the Met's performance. Separate articles provide an overview of the scandal and a comprehensive set of reference lists with detailed background information.
In February 2012, during evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the British press, Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers mentioned the existence of Operation Kalmyk, a new investigation related to Operation Tuleta. The investigation is in relation to access to computers.
Phone hacking by news organizations became the subject of scandals that raised concerns about illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2012. The scandal had been simmering since 2002 but broke wide open in July 2011 with the disclosure that a murdered teenage girl's mobile phone had been hacked by a newspaper looking for a story. The scandals involved multiple organizations, and include the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal, the News International phone hacking scandal, the 2011 News Corporation scandals, and the Metropolitan Police role in the News International phone hacking scandal.
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