Outside force to review Met’s inquiry into phone hacking

Scotland Yard’s incoming boss has called in an outside force to review the inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World.

New Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe considered it best practice to ask Durham Police to look at the Met’s Operation Weeting due to the sensitive nature of the case, police said.

The revelation comes after Britain’s top police officer said press and police relationships had “gone too far” as he called for an era of transparency and austerity.

Durham’s chief constable Jon Stoddart will lead the review following the request from Mr Hogan-Howe.

It was instigated by Mr Hogan-Howe while he was acting deputy commissioner, a Met spokesman added.

Mr Stoddart will report back to the Met in “due course”. The review was announced as Mr Hogan-Howe vowed to reset the boundaries between police and media in the wake of the scandal.

Fresh guidance would be issued for officers associating with journalists at the conclusion of several inquiries, Mr Hogan-Howe said.

Meanwhile, phone-hacking victim Sienna Miller said yesterday she planted false stories with friends in an attempt to work out how intimate details of her life were appearing in tabloid newspapers.

She said stories appeared in newspapers that only her mother, sister, boyfriend and best friend knew about, and she had become “incredibly paranoid” about it.

Miller reached a £100,000 settlement with the News of the World, which had hacked into her mobile phone messages.