More celebrities and high-profile public figures who believe they may have been victims of phone hacking have been consulting lawyers over possible action against the News of the World, it has emerged today.
Lawyer Mark Stephens, of Finers Stephens Innocent, said several legal firms had been approached by people who thought they may have been the target of a tabloid dirty tricks.
"Aggrieved celebrities are contacting lawyers across London," Stephens told BBC's Today programme. "I had two calls yesterday one from somebody who has been identified by the Guardian as having been hacked and also the private office of somebody who believes they may have been."
The prospect of legal action comes after three fresh inquiries were launched yesterday into the conduct of News of the World journalists following the Guardian's disclosures that Rupert Murdoch's News Group company paid £1m to keep secret the use of criminal methods to get stories.
The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, ordered an urgent review of the evidence relating to phone hacking gathered in the investigation of News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed for obtaining information illegally.
A powerful Commons select committee said it would be calling senior managers from News International to give evidence as early as next week to clarify what they knew about malpractice by journalists at the News of the World and the Press Complaints Commission also announced it was conducting an inquiry.
The Met's assistant commissioner, John Yates, said Scotland Yard would not be reopening its files because no new evidence had come to light and the original inquiry had concluded phone hacking had occurred in a minority of cases.
Legal experts said the Yard's decision would not effect the ability of alleged hacking victims to sue the News of the World for breach of privacy and today Stephens said Yates's statement did not "address the possibility that there had been a criminal attempt or a potential criminal conspiracy".
"I think Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, will force the police to reopen this investigation," he told the BBC.
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