UK Solicitors, US Lawyers Team for Milly Dowler Justice

(Posted on 23/09/11)

A young girl who went missing from her home in early 2002 is now at the center of an international quest for justice. News broke on Friday that Milly Dowler's family has put together a team of solicitors in the UK and lawyers in the United States in an effort to bring legal action against scandal-ridden News Corporation.

The Dowler family, who live in Walton-on-Thames, were waiting anxiously for word on where their daughter was and if she was OK on the morning of March 21, 2002. The 13 year old girl's cell phone had quickly filled up with voice mails from friends and family who were looking for her. Her family knew her voice mailbox was full. News of the World brought its private investigator on board to hack into the girl's voice mail so that they could collect the messages, too. They hadn't anticipated the voice mailbox filling up. It was then they made the disgusting decision to delete the messages so that they could hijack new ones. Her family soon realized that the mailbox was no longer full, leading them to believe their little girl was still alive.

So disgusting were the actions of the company and its employees, including Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, that it pursued an interview with the family knowing they were the reason for the false hope. The emotional interview included her devastated parents who were no doubt experiencing the worst days in the lives. All the while, the newspaper knew more than police or the family, yet they looked these parents in the eye and greedily hung on every word.

Dubbed "Operation Weeting", detectives have now found more than 10,000 pages of notes the private detective kept in his personal files on this case.

News International, which owns News of the World, says it will be opening its own investigation.