Scotland Yard listening to 'hundreds of intercepts' following a surge in legal actions and parallel claims
So many messages are being examined by Scotland Yard's phone-hacking inquiry that it is difficult to identify every mention of a celebrity's name among "hundreds of intercepts", lawyers for the police have claimed.
The proliferation of legal actions generated by complaints against the News of the World is also in danger of congesting the courts with "parallel claims", the judge hearing applications for disclosure in three cases has implied.
Official recognition of the scale of the problem came as three more alleged victims of the practice of hacking into voicemail messages sought high court orders granting them access to documents that may substantiate claims for damages. Lawyers for Paul Gascoigne, George Galloway and Mick McGuire, former deputy chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association, were granted permission to see relevant sections of transcripts.
The notebooks are among material seized by the Metropolitan police from the convicted private investigator Glenn Mulcaire who was employed by the newspaper.
Gascoigne and McGuire's applications were supported by Newsgroup Newspapers, owners of the News of the World, because, the court heard, the company "wishes to show it was not involved in the interception of information" relating to them.
Explaining the need for efficient case management, Mr Justice Vos told the court: "There have been numerous parallel applications with different counsel and solicitors ... raising identical or nearly identical points". He wanted to avoid duplication, he said.
At least 14 cases were already before the courts, agreed Jeremy Reed, counsel for Gascoigne and McGuire. There is speculation there will be many more, he added.
Lawyers for Gascoigne requested that any intercepted messages "about him or concerning him" should be included in the disclosure order because private information about his medical treatment had been obtained by hacking into other people's phones.
Edwin Buckett, representing the Met, said that would mean the police "having to listen to every transcript to see if Mr Gascoigne is mentioned". There are "hundreds of intercepts", he said. "It makes it so wide, it's difficult to comply with."
The judge ordered the police to hand over anything in the transcripts that was "about or concerning" Paul Gascoigne.
The names of more journalists may appear after the judge ordered that ''redactions'' ? the blanked-out sections in the transcripts handed to the claimants ? should not hide the names of employees of the News of the World.
The three claimants were also granted access to information on breaches of privacy gathered by the Information Commissioner's Office during its Operation Motorman inquiry into the matter.
Scotland Yard has confirmed that 45 detectives are now working on Operation Weeting, the reopened investigation into phone hacking launched following the sacking by the News of the World of one of its senior executives.
Previously officers had informed only a handful of people that they had been targeted by Mulcaire.
The private detective was jailed for six months for hacking into the private telephone calls of members of the royal household. The NoW reporter Clive Goodman was also jailed for four months after he pleaded guilty to phone message interception charges in January 2007.
The Guardian has revealed in the past that the seized material included 4,332 names or partial names; 2,987 mobile phone numbers; 30 audiotapes of varying length; and 91 pin codes of a kind needed to access voicemail with the minority of targets who change the factory settings on their mobile phones.
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