Judge orders search of News of the World computers

[kpete]

Judge orders search of News of the World computers
Laptops and deskop computers alleged to contain evidence that executives deliberately destroyed evidence of phone hacking

News Group Newspapers has been ordered to allow a search of computers alleged to contain evidence that News of the World executives deliberately destroyed damning phone-hacking evidence.

During legal discussions on Thursday before a civil trial scheduled for 13 February, the company failed to convince Mr Justice Vos that the search of three laptops assigned to senior employees and six desktop computers was "disproportionate".

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But Vos said that if he had "acceded to NGN suggestions back in early 2011 that disclosure was not necessary because admissions had been made, the phone-hacking history might be very different".

..................."It seems to be a distinct possibility (that information on the laptops])could contain information relevant to the deliberate deletion of email and go beyond just 'colour' but indicate precisely what the deletion was taking place for, which may go far beyond scope of present admissions by NGN," he said. "I'm entirely satisfied that these laptops should be searched for purpose of relevant disclosure."



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http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/19/judge-orders-search-news-world-computers