LONDON — For months, Britain’s scandal over scoop-hungry reporters hacking into the cellphones of celebrities and politicians drew shrugs from the general public, which viewed the affair as a rarified dispute between the rich and famous and those who write about them.
Not anymore.
Revulsion swept the nation Tuesday amid allegations that a sensationalist tabloid owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch also intercepted and tampered with voice mails left for a kidnapped 13-year-old girl whose body was later found dumped in the woods.
Britons from Prime Minister David Cameron on down declared their disgust over the accusations, the latest to hit Murdoch’s weekly News of the World.
The disturbing turn in a long-running scandal has raised questions about the media magnate’s relationship with the British political establishment and police. It comes at a sensitive time for the Australian-born Murdoch, who also operates Fox News in the United States and is seeking political approval to expand his media empire in Britain.
Critics say authorities have been too timid in their investigation for fear of angering Murdoch, whose business interests allow him to exert a powerful — some say baleful — influence on British society.
A spokesman for News International, the British subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corp., said the company was cooperating fully with the police and would “get to the bottom” of the “very distressing allegations.”
Until Tuesday, the scandal mostly involved pro athletes, political bigwigs and movie stars who were among thousands of possible victims of phone hacking by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator hired by the News of the World to ferret out information and scoops. Mulcaire and the tabloid’s royal-family reporter were sent to jail in 2007 for illegally accessing private voice mails, including messages left by Princes William and Harry for their aides.
A new investigation by Scotland Yard has resulted in the arrest of several more reporters and editors — and in the startling revelation that first began to emerge Monday evening.
In 2002, Milly Dowler vanished in southern England, a disappearance that made national headlines. The teenager’s remains were later found in a wooded area. Last month, a nightclub bouncer was convicted of her murder.
According to the Guardian newspaper, police have discovered evidence that the News of the World hacked into Milly’s voice mails after she went missing, publishing at least one story based on the information gleaned.
Making matters worse, Mulcaire allegedly deleted some of the messages to free up Milly’s mailbox for more incoming calls — in the process interfering with a police investigation.
The deletions cruelly raised the Dowlers’ hopes that their daughter was still alive, because they thought she had erased the messages herself. Most likely, Milly was already dead by then.
Police are now trying to determine whether the alleged hacking hampered their investigation of the kidnapping and murder, which could mean more legal woes for Mulcaire.
