[10] It was alleged that a much wider range of people across different areas of public life, including the former deputy prime minister John Prescott,[11] the Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, politicians Tessa Jowell and Boris Johnson,[12] publicist Max Clifford and even Rebekah Brooks, then editor of the News of the World's sister paper The Sun,[13] had been the victim of hacking ordered by the News of the World.
In the course of one of these litigation proceedings, that brought by Sienna Miller, papers lodged in the High Court suggested that Ian Edmondson, a senior editor at the News of the World, was involved in work undertaken by Mulcaire.
[17] In the wake of this new evidence, News International group general manager Will Lewis was tasked with reviewing any documents relating to the 2006 Goodman case within the company's records and files.
Lewis passed this material to a second legal firm, Hickman Rose, who in turn asked the former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald to examine the evidence and report his findings to the News International board.
[21] In a report to Parliament on 20 July 2011, the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons recommended that additional resources be made available to the operation in order to speed up its progress;[22] later the same day, the Metropolitan Police announced that the number of officers assigned to Weeting was to be increased to its current level of 60.
[24] It is believed that around 3,000 people may have had their phones hacked, a figure that was confirmed by DAC Akers at an evidence session of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 12 July 2011.
[24] During the investigations, documentation provided to Operation Weeting suggested that some police personnel may have accepted "inappropriate payments" from news organisations in return for classified information.
[62][63][64] According to press reports, the list of the eight individuals to be charged was as follows: Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Glenn Mulcaire, Greg Miskiw, Ian Edmondson, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup.