JK Rowling ‘core participant’ in phone hacking inquiry
Dozens of alleged phone hacking victims, including Milly Dowler’s parents and Harry Potter creator JK Rowling, are named as “core participants” in the first stage of the inquiry into the scandal.
Sienna Miller, former F1 boss Max Mosley, Paul Gascoigne, and Ulrika Johnson are also among those given core participant status by Lord Justice Leveson who will preside over the inquiry, the first part of which will look at the culture, ethics and practices of the press and its relationship with the police and politicians.
The group of specially interested parties will now be able to given evidence personally or via a barrister and can seek to make opening and closing statements during the inquiry, which is expected to last several months.
They will also have the right to cross-examine witnesses, although Lord Leveson said he would “significantly limit, if not refuse, such applications”.
Others given core participant (CP) status include serving MPs Chris Bryant, Tessa Jowell, Simon Hughes and Denis MacShane, and former MPs such as Lord Prescott and Mark Oaten, who resigned as the Lib Dems’ home affairs spokesman in 2006 over an affair with a rent boy.
Football agent Sky Andrew, Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati and Christopher Shipman, son of mass murderer Harold Shipman, also made the list.
Lord Leveson went on to give core participant status to the News International group (the parent company of News of the World, the Sun, The Times and Sunday Times), Northern and Shell Network (owner of the Express and Star titles), and the Guardian News and Media group.
The Metropolitan Police status were also given core participant status.
But Rebekah Brooks, former editor of The Sun and News International chief executive, was omitted from the list.
Ms Brooks had asked for CP status but was refused by Lord Justice Leveson, who said her involvement was more focused on the second part of the inquiry.
He said: “Mrs Brooks has very considerable knowledge and experience. I hope and believe that her input into the inquiry will be of enormous value, but at this stage, and in the context of what I am presently required to do, I do not consider that it is necessary or appropriate to designate her as a core participant.”
He added that Ms Brooks’s lawyer is able to apply to ask questions and she can “apply to put in written submissions at the end”.
Read More: the full list of core participants here here