Police have unearthed evidence that private investigators working on behalf of UK newspapers may have hacked into the email account of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown while he was Chancellor in 2007, according to The Independent newspaper.
Detectives are looking into the evidence after seizing 20 computers from private investigators. As well as Brown, the report also suggests that former Labour adviser and lobbyist Derek Draper was also targeted by hackers.
Many other people may have also been victims of hacking, possibly as many as those involved in the phone hacking scandal News of the World, the paper said.
The eight-member strong Scotland Yard’s Operation Tuleta team is looking at the possibility that several newspaper titles commissioned private detectives to access computers, suggesting it is not just looking at News International, owner of The News of the World, which was closed down at the height of the phone-hacking scandal last year.
When the phone hacking scandal was revealed in the middle of 2011, Brown had accused Rupert Murdoch-owned News International of hacking into his emails.
According to the broadsheet, the hacking probably took place during the period when relations between Brown and Tony Blair were reportedly strained.
Operation Tuleta was set up last year to deal with allegations connected to the News of the World phone-hacking scandal but which are not covered by Operation Weeting, the main investigation.
