News media phone hacking scandal evidence seized from Mulcaire back in August 2006. By mid-year, five people were arrested, including senior journalists from "News of the World". In June 2011, the long-ignored issue of computer hacking was addressed by the launching of . Having failed thus far to put the phone hacking issue to rest, News International's law firm, Hickman & Rose, now hired former Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald to review the emails that News International executives had used as the basis of their claim that no one at "News of the World" but Clive Goodman had been involved in phone hacking. Macdonald
2009–2011 News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations World" had rehired a private investigator shortly after his release from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail. The "News of the World" had used the investigator prior to his imprisonment, at a time when Coulson was deputy editor. In February 2010, "The Guardian" could not name Jonathan Rees as he was involved in a new criminal trial. In September 2010 "The Guardian" revealed that in 2009 plans by the Home Office to ask Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to review the police investigation into the phone hacking scandal were cancelled "after intense internal lobbying", with a senior Home Office official