Met chief 'appalled' by hacking claims

The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson has declined to comment on the ongoing inquiry into phone-hacking by News of the World journalists, but has said he is "appalled" by the latest allegations.

It is claimed that an investigator working for the paper accessed the voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, after her abduction in 2002 and deleted some messages, giving her parents false hope that she was alive.

A News International spokesman said it had been co-operating fully with the police inquiry.