Updated
Milly Dowler (left), with her sister Gemma, went missing in March 2002. (Reuters)
There is renewed pressure for a public inquiry into the News of the World phone-hacking saga amid further allegations the family phones of murder victims were hacked into.
First, it was the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, with a private investigator allegedly deleting the voicemail messages of the missing girl, giving her family false hope she was still alive.
Now, police have told the parents of two other murdered schoolgirls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, their family phones might have been hacked.
In the UK parliament overnight there were calls from all sides for a public inquiry.
Actor Hugh Grant says the new victims might just prove the needed momentum.
"Because so many of the victims up until now have been [celebrities] - not to put a too fine a point on it - it's difficult to get people to really care," he said.
Car manufacturer Ford is pulling its advertising with the tabloid and there is speculation other brands could follow.
Meanwhile, pressure is growing for the chief executive of the News International media group, Rebekah Brooks, to resign.
Ms Brooks, the News of the World's editor at the time the hacking took place, says she is appalled by the allegations and has written to the girl's family.
Ms Brooks, who was the paper's editor at the time, has promised the strongest possible action if the case is proven.
But the family's lawyer, Mark Lewis, says it does not make a difference.
"A letter from her nine years later, saying that she knew nothing isn't really very appealing to the families," he said.
"Ultimately you know if she didn't know what was happening then what was she doing as an editor?
"She has risen in the company very high - so it's either she should resign because of incompetence, or she should resign because she did know what was doing, and therefore it's just not right to carry on doing that job."
News International's director of corporate affairs Simon Greenberg says the paper is cooperating with authorities.
"We've met with the police; we hope to be meeting with the families. They are in possession of the majority of the evidence of the allegations that we've read about," he said.
"We would really need to see that because we're obviously very familiar with how these cases run - and then we would need to take that... hopefully take some of that information away and cross reference it.
"We'll be making all sorts of things available to the police if they request them."
First posted
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/06/3262036.htm
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