News of the World may have targeted families of dead soldiers

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that families of dead soldiers may have been the victim of phone hacking.
The newspaper report claims that Glenn Mulcaire’s notebook had names and contact numbers of families who lost loved ones. Mulcaire was convicted in 2007 along with Clive Goodman for intercepting voicemail messages from the Royal household.

Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of NOTW at the time has refused to resign as chief executive of News International, the parent company of the Sunday tabloid. Yesterday the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch released a statement in which he fully backed Brooks’ leadership.

“Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable. I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks’ leadership.

We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again. I have also appointed Joel Klein to provide important oversight and guidance and Joel and Viet Dinh, an Independent Director, are keeping News Corporation’s Board fully advised as well.” – Rupert Murdoch

News Corporation are currently looking to bid for BSkyB and take full control of the Sky company.