I SPIED FOR NEWS OF THE WORLD, SAYS BRITISH PRIVATE EYE

A former Scotland Yard police officer-turned private detective has admitted that he tailed more than 90 celebrities and politicians for the now-defunct News of the World over a period of eight years. Derek Webb told the BBC that his targets included Prince William, Chelsy Davy (Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend), former U.K. attorney general Lord Goldsmith, Angelina Jolie, British football commentator Gary Lineker, and Labor MP Tom Watson, who has led the battle in Parliament against News International’s phone-hacking activities. His targets, Webb also disclosed, included two lawyers, Mark Lewis and his former assistant Charlotte Harris, who represent numerous phone-hacking victims. “I never knew when I was going to be required. They phone me up by the day or by the night … it could be anywhere in the country,” Webb said in the BBC interview. Webb said that he had decided to speak out after the News of the World shut down without paying him for his work. A former features editor of the tabloid told the BBC that Webb was a disgruntled former worker who had a grievance over payment. James Murdoch, who headed News International, a unit of his father’s News Corp, is due to respond to the latest revelations about phone hacking activities at News International papers when he appears, for a second time, before a Parliamentary committee on Thursday.