POLICE HAVE told Sara Payne, whose daughter was murdered in 2000, that her telephone messages may have been hacked by the News of the World– even though she worked with the tabloid on a campaign against paedophile child-killers.
Detectives found her name on a list kept by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was employed by the tabloid and was jailed in 2007 for hacking into the messages of the royal family and staff.
Ms Payne's daughter Sarah was kidnapped and killed by paedophile Roy Whiting in a high-profile case that the tabloid used as the basis for a campaign to change the law to allow parents find out where sex offenders live. Last night she was, according to friends who spoke to the Guardian, "absolutely devastated and deeply disappointed" by the paper's alleged conduct.
Ms Payne,wrote a farewell column in the News of the World's final edition, describing its staff as "my good and trusted friends". She had become friendly with the paper's then editor, Rebekah Brooks.
In a statement, Ms Brooks, who resigned as chief executive of News International after it emerged that the News of the Worldhad in 2002 hacked into the voicemail of murder victim Milly Dowler, said the allegations were "abhorrent" and "particularly upsetting" because Ms Payne was a friend. She said the paper had supplied Ms Payne with a mobile phone for 11 years, but denied any knowledge of hacking.
