Phone Hacking: Prosecuting Papers 'Too Costly'

The former Information Commissioner has said he was glad he did not pursue prosecutions against journalists over phone hacking and other data theft because it would have "bogged down" his office for years.

Richard Thomas, who held the position from 2002 until 2009, told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics he had never said the press was too big to tackle.

But Mr Thomas said he followed legal advice suggesting the cost and scale of taking on newspapers would have been vast.
The former Information Commissioner told the hearing that a legal counsel had warned him journalists would be like a "barrel load of monkeys".
They would, he was told, be well briefed and well prepared if questioned.
The inquiry heard the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) uncovered a "treasure trove" of evidence linking journalists to the trade in stolen personal information when its investigators raided the home of private investigator Steve Whittamore in March 2003.

It was serious but I don't want to give the impression it was earth-stopping.

Former Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas

Despite the recovery of this evidence, Mr Thomas eventually decided not to pursue prosecutions against individual journalists or newspapers, opting to raise the matter with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) instead.
Whittamore was convicted in April 2005 of illegally accessing data, but the inquiry heard no journalist has ever been prosecuted as a result if the so-called Motorman investigation.
Mr Thomas said he had been aware of the seriousness of the material seized by the Motorman investigators but added that it was one of many issues on his radar at the time.
"Yes, very serious," he said. "But alongside many serious matters. I was dealing with a wide range of issues."
He added: "It was serious but I don't want to give the impression it was earth-stopping."
Mr Thomas said: "It indicated their suspicions had been vindicated and would lead to prosecutions in due course."
The inquiry, sitting before Lord Justice Leveson, was told that later legal advice had cautioned against prosecutions - both in terms of the cost financially and in manpower for a department Mr Thomas described as "under-resourced".
Mr Thomas said prosecution was only one of the considerations for the ICO when examining the illegal access of information.
Just as important, he said, was encouraging good practice, which was one of the reasons his department had decided to pursue that case through the PCC rather than the courts.