Phone hacking: book publishing executives targeted

Agent who worked with Linda McCartney and publisher of Katie Price autobiography told they may have been under surveillance The police investigation into phone hacking by the News of the World has now spread to the publishing world, with a high-profile agent and a celebrity book publisher targeted. Peter Cox, who worked with the late Linda McCartney, and John Blake, who has worked with Katie Price and Jade Goody, have each been told by the police that they appear to have been targeted by illegal surveillance. Cox told the Guardian he was “stunned” to learn from the Metropolitan police’s Operation Weeting that someone had been eavesdropping on him: “It’s a little like coming home to find your place has been burgled, the same sort of feeling, invasion of privacy. Unless it’s actually happened to you, it’s difficult to explain.” Angered by what he describes as a “violation”, he added: “I’m quite interested in suing the hell out of them.” Both men regularly worked on high-profile books. One project was particularly sensitive because it involved royalty, a source revealed. Police from Operation Weeting have now shown Cox handwritten notes reproduced from his own calls. For legal reasons, his lawyers have advised him against revealing details. He said: “It’s difficult for me to say anything, but it was about one specific project … which had major serial potential … Those were the days when a big serialisation was worth a good six figures plus national television advertising.” His suspicions had been raised some time previously when journalists from various papers tried in vain to discover the contents of audiotapes of McCartney in his possession. Cox co-authored a book with the former Beatle’s wife. Cox’s stable of authors includes Michelle Paver, whose books have so far sold 3.5m copies worldwide. Yesterday, he warned publishing colleagues that they too could have been targeted over any books of commercial interest to the News of the World, particularly if rival papers had acquired serialisations. He advised: “Agents and publishers should check if they had any projects that [could be] of competitive significance, especially to the News of the World.” Blake, a publisher of celebrity books and a former journalist on the Sun, appeared more sanguine. He was “surprised, not shocked” to be contacted by the police: “I was vaguely flattered in a pathetic way.” Asked why News of the World journalists might have hacked into his phone, he said: “We deal with a lot of people they might be interested in.” His authors have included Katie Price, the glamour model turned writer, and Jade Goody, the late reality television star, and this week he launches a book by mercenary Simon Mann. The two men are the latest in what is thought to run into thousands of phone-hacking victims. The revelation that the phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked by the News of the World led to confirmation last week that her family will receive £2m in compensation, with Rupert Murdoch personally donating a further £1m to charity. On being told of the publishing development, Mark Lewis of Taylor Hampton, solicitors for the Dowler family, said: “It comes as no surprise that the police have started to notify people in all walks of life … If a story was good enough to go in a book, it would be good enough to go straight into a newspaper. Agents and publishers were obvious targets.” A spokeswoman for News International, which also publishes the Times, declined to comment, saying only: “We are co-operating fully with the police.” •

Posted by on October 25, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.