Phone-hack victims thought daughter was alive

Phone-hack victims thought daughter was alive - Rupert Murdoch’s apology ‘very sincere’ say Milly Dowler’s parents, who thought daughter was alive after hacking. The mother of a murdered girl told a British courtroom Monday she believed her missing 13-year-old was still alive once she reached the girl's previously full voice mailbox — only to learn later that her daughter's phone had been hacked into by a tabloid.

Sally Dowler said when she could finally leave a message on her daughter Milly's voice mail weeks after the girl disappeared in 2002, she shouted "She's picked up the voice mails! ... She's alive!"

In fact, messages on Milly's phone had been deleted not by Milly but by someone working for the News of the World tabloid while the Dowlers and the police were still searching for the girl, who was later found dead.

The Dowlers were the first in a string of high-profile witnesses, including celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Sienna Miller and author J.K. Rowling, testifying before a judicial inquiry set up by Prime Minister David Cameron on how they were followed, photographed, entrapped and harassed by tabloid journalists.

The Dowlers also described their shock and anger when a private walk to retrace their missing daughter's last steps was secretly photographed by the tabloid.

Sally Dowler said she and her husband Bob had no idea they were being observed as they walked near their home in May 2002, but days later saw the pictures in the News of the World.

"It just felt like such an intrusion into a really, really private grief moment," she said. The couple said they later realized that their own phone, as well as their daughter's, had been hacked.

The Dowlers took the stand together and spoke in quiet, composed voices during their 30 minutes of nationally televised testimony. They described a tense July meeting with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the now shuttered News of the World, when he apologized for the hacking.

"It was a very tense meeting," Sally Dowler said. "He was very sincere."

via: nydaily