LONDON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- A former reporter for the British tabloid The People says the newspaper obtained information by hacking into cellphones.
David Brown accused editors at the Sunday newspaper of using hacking to keep up with celebrities' sex lives, The Daily Telegraph reported. A statement he prepared for an employment tribunal in 2007 was obtained by Sky News.
Brown's unfair-dismissal claim was settled without a hearing.
The newspaper is owned by Trinity Mirror, which also owns the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Daily Record. The company has denied obtaining information illegally.
"A number of the methods used to pry into individuals' lives were illegal and I have little doubt that if these people knew they had been spied upon, they would take legal action for breach of their right to privacy," Brown said.
In his statement, Brown said The People apologized to David Beckham and his wife, Victoria, and paid damages after running a story accusing them of making "hate calls" to their nanny. The newspaper could not admit the story was obtained through phone hacking, he said.
The phone-hacking scandal exploded this summer after The Guardian reported Rupert Murdoch's News of the World hacked the cellphone of a missing schoolgirl. A detective working for the newspaper allegedly deleted messages to make room for the phone to record more messages -- but the appearance of activity on her phone gave her parents false hope she was still alive, officials said.
