Jacqui Hames: Surveillance left me 'anxious and needing counselling'

Former detective constable and Crimewatch presenter Jacqui Hames told the Leveson inquiry in written evidence today that surveillance of herself and her former husband, allegedly carried out on behalf of the News of the World, left her "distressed, anxious and needing counselling".

Allegations of surveillance in 2002 of Hames' former husband, who was the senior investigating officer of a murder inquiry at the time, were first reported in July last year.

In written evidence published by the Leveson inquiry today, Hames said the MPS' head of public affairs Dick Fedorcio had "sought an explanation from Rebekah Brooks", at the time editor of the News of the World, about the surveillance.

Hames told the inquiry "the explanation supplied" was that the newspaper was "investigating suspicions that we were having an affair with each other."

But she claims in her evidence "this was utterly nonsensical", citing that the couple had been married for four years and had two children.

In her oral evidence she became visibly upset when asked about the impact of this on her life, and in her written evidence she said it caused "great anxiety".

"Our house was on the market for sale at the time and with the worry over allowing strangers access to our home, it had to be taken off, causing us to review our plans to move house.

"We had to speak to the headmistress of my daughter’s school and the head of my son’s nursery to highlight the possibility of strangers hanging around outside. These were not easy conversations in light of concerns generally about child safety.

"We also had to consider carefully whether inviting our children’s friends round to the house was sensible. In fact all aspects of our daily lives had to be reconsidered in light of these events".

She added that "the News of the World has never supplied a coherent explanation for why we were placed under surveillance".

But in her written statement, she said she believes "the real reason" was that suspects in the murder inquiry "were using their association with a powerful and well-resourced newspaper to try to intimidate us and so attempt to subvert the investigation."

Hames also told the inquiry that in May last year officers from Operation Weeting, the police investigation into phone hacking, told her that her details appeared in the notebooks of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

"The information that I was shown in the notebooks included detail such as my payroll and warrant numbers, the name of the police section house that I lived in when I first joined the police in 1977, the name, location and telephone number of my place of work in 2002, my and David’s full home address and mobile phone number and some notes about my previous husband and his work details."

She added that this "could only have come from one place: my MPS file".

"I have always been loyal to the MPS but I do feel very let down by this failure to inform or protect me from the unlawful actions of the press."

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