Black day for Fleet Street’s black arts

Hacking was commonplace until recently, says former tabloid news editor CHRIS BOFFEY

When the news broke that David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, was having an affair with Kimberly Fortier, the married publisher of the Spectator, Fleet Street news editors turned to what is known in the trade as the 'black arts' to get the juicy details tabloid readers would expect.

At one 'red top' paper, a reporter was ordered to hack into the message box of Fortier's mobile phone. He came up with gold dust: the normally dour Blunkett was heard singing a love song and in a later message, when the relationship was breaking up, pleading for her to call him.

Yesterday at the Old Bailey, Clive Goodman (right), royal correspondent of the News of the World, Britain's biggest-selling tabloid newspaper, was jailed for four months for pulling off the same scam. His target had been Prince William. An hour after Goodman

In the eyes of many of their peers, their crime was to get caught

was taken to the cells, his editor resigned. In the eyes of many of their peers, their crime was to get caught.

It was only recently, after the Information Minister Richard Thomas threatened two-year jail sentences for anyone who unlawfully obtained or sold personal information, that newspapers realised the game was up and the era of the black arts was over.

Virtually every paper had someone who could find out an unlisted telephone number for £50, but the tabloids always went further, paying tens of thousands to hackers. Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat MP, was forced to out himself as gay after the Sun newspaper confronted him with evidence that he was regularly ringing a gay chat line. He agreed to be interviewed about his sexuality in an attempt to limit the story. The evidence had been obtained by hacking into Hughes's telephone account.

Those days are over - at least until someone finds a new way of filching information that does not lead to jail or the dole queue.