News of the World royal phone hacking scandal failures of the police investigation would go on to form part of the wider scandal in 2011. In August 2006, the "News of the World"s royal editor, Clive Goodman and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, were arrested by the Metropolitan Police, and later charged with hacking the telephones of members of the royal family by accessing voicemail messages, an offence under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. On 26 January 2007, both Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced to four and six months imprisonment respectively. On the same day, it was
Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal into phone hacking, something it had declined to do since 2007. The renewed Met investigation was titled Operation Weeting and began on 26 January 2011. It was led by Sue Akers, a Deputy Assistant Commissioner with the Metropolitan Police, and was focused on the illegal interception of voicemail. Between 45 and 60 officers began looking over the 11,000 pages of evidence seized from Mulcaire back in August 2006. By mid-April, Thurlbeck, Edmondson, and James Weatherup, a senior "News of the World" journalist, had been arrested. In May 2011, News International's law firm, Hickman & Rose, hired former Director of Public