Their daughter had gone missing and what gave them hope was that they suddenly could get through to an answer phone that had previously been full. It turned out to be a false hope.
14.25 More from Chris Hope on that urgent question in the Commons:
Sky News reports that it might now be an application for a debate. Chris Bryant will ask for permission to hold a three hour debate on phone hacking, tomorrow in the House of Commons. Labour MPs are being told to "pile into the Commons" to support the request.
14.20 The actor Hugh Grant has been on the phone to Radio 5 Live to discuss the phone hacking allegations.
He said that allowing Rebekah Brooks to sort out News International hacking is "completely absurd" and compared it to allowing "Hitler to clean up the Nazi party".
14.17 Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, comments that the allegations over Milly Dowler will broaden the interest in the NOTW hacking debate:
For a long time the hacking story united those who'd always been hostile to the Murdoch empire with those angered by its switch from backing New Labour to supporting the Tories, and those who saw it as a way to damage David Cameron (who hired the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his spin doctor). Now Murdoch, Brooks and Cameron will be aware that for the first time the hacking story may be engaging and horrifying readers, viewers and voters.
14.07 Breaking news from Chris Hope:
The Speaker of the House of Commons has granted time for an urgent question on the hacking claims from MPs to a Government minister at 3.30pm today. This is defined by the House of Commons as a "question of an urgent nature for which no previous notice has been given. It will relate to a matter of public importance or the arrangement of business". The key point is that the Government has to come to the Chamber and make a statement. No more dodging allowed.
14.03 Vince Cable, the business secretary, has suggested that Rebekah Brooks has some serious soul-searching to do over the phone hacking affair:
There are a lot of people who have to examine their conscience because it's an appalling state of affairs, a terrible thing to have done, and those people who are responsible have got to take the consequences, which may indeed the criminal law.
He added that News Corporation's bid to take over of BSkyB was "quite separate" from the phone hacking scandal.
13.59 To pledge support for an inquiry into phone hacking claims, anyone can sign up to the petition here.
13.51 Roy Greenslade, professor of journalism at City University, is urging public action in response to the Milly Dowler hacking claims. Greenslade, former editor of the Daily Mirror and blogger for The Guardian, is calling for people to boycott the NOTW and back demands for a public inquiry, and he says advertisers should stop buying space on its pages.
The public is not impotent. People can act in response to what the prime minister has called "a truly dreadful act".
13.46 Sir David Bell, chairman of the Media Standards Trust, which aims to promote high standards in the meida, will launch a formal call for a public inquiry on Wednesday. He said:
This is an iceberg and we have only seen the tip of it. The time has come now to get all the detail about what has happened into the open all the detail about what has happened. There are a lot of vested interests here, colluding together to make that very difficult.
13.45 Do you support Ed Milliband's suggestion that there should be a full public inquiry into the News International phone hacking allegations?
Is it time for a public inquiry into phone hacking allegations?survey software
13.40 Robert Peston is tweeting that he has been told of worse cases of phone hacking at the NOTW.
Peston: News Int execs tell me they fear there may have been worse examples of NOTW hacking than that of Milly Dowler's phone. The mind reels
13.38 Chris Hope, our Whitehall Editor, tells me that Tim Farron, President of the Liberal Democrats, has been speaking about the case.
He said that "hyberbole" was not enough to describe his anger over the hacking claims on Milly Dowler. He told Radio Four's World At One show:
I have always felt that News International owns far too much of the UK media market and even under the tight rules that are set down that Jeremy Hunt could choose to reject the bid for News International to own more than BSkyB.
13.35 Labour MP Chris Bryant - whose is among those pursuing litigation against the News of the World in the High Court over alleged hacking - will seek an emergency debate in the Commons this afternoon.
The former minister is to employ a little-used parliamentary procedure under which he will have three minutes to persuade the Speaker and sufficient fellow MPs that the hacking revelations should be discussed.
An urgent question will also be raised in the upper house by Lord Fowler, chairman of the Lords Communications Committee.
13.30 Here's a bit more from Simon Greenberg, News International's PR chief, who spoke to Sky News a short time ago:
All I can tell you is we are trying to get to the bottom of it. We had a meeting with the police this morning which was a regular scheduled meeting in line with the ongoing inquiry.
Asked if the News of The World had ever run a story based on Milly Dowler's voicemails:
We are still in the process of getting the evidence and getting the facts.
13.22 Tom Whitehead, our Home Affairs Editor, is down at the Home Affairs Select Committee meeting, where Theresa May has been speaking about the phone hacking claims.
Home Secretary Theresa May described the allegations as "totally shocking". She said:
I think it's totally shocking, frankly it's disgusting. The mindset of somebody who thinks it's appropriate to do that is totally sick.
13.09 Simon Greenberg, News International's head of corporate affairs, has now appeared on Sky News for an interview with Adam Boulton, in which he admitted that "clearly mistakes were made in the past". He added that the publisher "would be prepared" to apologise to the Dowler family, once the facts of the case have been established.
12.55 We have a copy of the full statement sent to News International staff by Rebekah Brooks:
I wanted to address the company as a matter of urgency in light of the new claims against the News of the World.
We were all appalled and shocked when we heard about these allegations yesterday.
I have to tell you that I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened.
Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowler's family is unforgivable.
Our first priority must be to establish the full facts behind these claims. I have written to Mr and Mrs Dowler this morning to assure them News International will vigorously pursue the truth and that they will be the first to be informed of the outcome of our investigation.
...
If the allegations are proved to be true then I can promise the strongest possible action will be taken as this company will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour.
I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.
12.42 Rebekah Brooks has apparently sent an internal email to News International staff, extracts of which are beginning to appear on Twitter via TimesNewsdesk.
Here's a taste of some of what she is said to have written:
... "It is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned, these appalling [alleged actions]" #notw #hacking ^DRless than a minute ago via CoTweet 
Favorite 
Retw eet 
Reply
Times News
TimesNewsdesk
Rebekah Brooks: "If the allegations are proved to be true I can promise the strongest possible action." #notw #hackingless than a minute ago via CoTweet Favorite Retweet ReplyTimes News
TimesNewsdesk
Statement from Rebekah Brooks: "I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened"... #notw #hacking ^DRless than a minute ago via CoTweet Favorite R etweet ReplyTimes News
TimesNewsdesk
12.30 The chair of the Press Complaints Commission, Lady Buscombe, has taken part in a combative interview with Andrew Neil where she accused News International of lying. She said:
We personally, and the PCC, are so angry because clearly we were misled... There's only so much we can do when people are lying to us.
The press watchdog is already facing serious questions over its effectiveness and the Milly revelations will do nothing to curb its reputation of weakness.
12.01 Simon Greenberg, News International's director of Corporate Affairs, is leaving Fortress Wapping and stepping into the lion's den with an interview with Adam Boulton on Sky News at 1pm. Should make for interesting viewing, although worth noting that he's chosen to go for Sky (another Murdoch outlet) rather than BBC or ITV.
11.53 Ed Miliband was first off the blocks this morning to call for a public inquiry into phone hacking. The Labour leader urged Brooks to "consider her position" and "examine her conscience". He said:
This is a stain on the character of British journalism. The culture and practice of some parts of the industry bring into question the rest of the industry and that's why we need a proper inquiry into the culture and practices which allowed these things to happen.
He also called on News International's chief executive Rebekah Brooks to "consider her conscience and consider her position".
11.45 Robert Peston's blog (I mentioned earlier) has not sat easily with everyone. Telegraph blogger Toby Young claims " it reads like a press release that's been hand-written by News International's Chief Executive".
For the past year or so, Peston's close links to Britain's largest newspaper group have been a frequent talking point in the media. The UK Press Gazette identified him as "the chosen channel for tips from the top of News International" and his willingness to act as a mouthpiece for the company has been the subject of stories on Guido Fawkes's blog and in Private Eye. But this latest blog post takes the spin-doctory to a new level. Last night, Peston asked whether News International will now face a "fit and proper" test before Jeremy Hunt can give the go ahead to the company's purchase of BSkyB's remaining shares. His conclusion – surprise, surprise – is that it probably won't. In the light of Peston's close links to News International, shouldn't the BBC be asking whether he's a "fit and proper" person to report on the phone hacking scandal? I say this not just because the state broadcaster has a duty to be impartial, but because I'm a fan of Peston's. His reporting of the global financial crisis was excellent. However, his loyalty to Rebekah Brooks and her cronies has become so transparent it's threatening to destroy his reputation. If the BBC wants to preserve one of its best assets, it should protect its business editor from himself.
11.38 The allegations over Milly Dowler's phone are the latest twist in the long-running saga of phone hacking at the NOTW. If true, it's the first time a victim of crime's phone was interfered with. To put it all in context, see our phone hacking timeline.
11.26 News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks (who was the editor of the NOTW at the time of the alleged hacking), faces some serious questions over her leadership. But Robert Peston, the BBC's business editor, has blogged that she is not planning to resign over the scandal.
Rebekah Brooks is not planning to resign as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's UK operations, I have learned - even though the voicemails of Milly Dowler's mobile phone were allegedly intercepted at the instigation of the News of the World when she was editor of the Sunday tabloid in 2002. Later today she is expected to tell staff at News International, the UK arm of Mr Murdoch's News Corporation, that she is deeply shocked by the allegations, which News International has been working through the night to substantiate. However she insists that she was not involved in that instance of alleged phone hacking, or others, and knew nothing about it. Ms Brooks has spoken to Rupert Murdoch, and is under no pressure from him to stand down.
11.21 The allegations have provoked condemnation from polticians, not least from David Cameron, who described the claims as "truly dreadful". I caught his comments from a press conference earlier today in Kabul (no, I wasn't in Afghanistan - I saw it on Sky News). The Prime Minister said:
If they (the allegations) are true, this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation. What I have read in the papers is quite, quite shocking that someone could do this, actually knowing that the police were trying to find this person (Milly Dowler) and trying to find out what had happened, and we all now know the tragedy that took place. There is a police investigation into hacking allegations. The police in our country are quite rightly independent. But they should feel they should investigate this without any fear, without any favour, without any worry about where the evidence should lead them. They should pursue this in the most vigorous way that they can in order to get to the truth of what happened. I think that is the absolute priority as a police investigation.
11.09 For a comprehensive roundup of yesterday's events, read the story in today's Telegraph, also published on our website here, by Mark Hughes, our crime correspondent, and Andrew Porter, our political editor.
11.05 For those not up to speed with the story, here is a quick recap of the events which unfolded in the past day.
The Guardian broke the story yesterday evening, reporting that the Sunday tabloid allegedly targeted Miss Dowler's phone in March 2002 shortly after the 13-year-old schoolgirl went missing from streets near her home in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
It is alleged that a private investigator working for the newspaper intercepted voicemails on her phone and even erased some left by concerned friends and relatives to free up space in her inbox, so journalists could access fresh messages for stories.
Miss Dowler's parents, Sally and Bob, said yesterday they had been given "false hope" that their daughter could still have been alive after her messages were accessed. They are planning to take legal action against the newspaper.
The allegations also raise questions that by accessing the voicemails, journalists interfered with the police investigation into Miss Dowler's disappearance.
11.00 Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the scandal over allegations that the News of the World hacked into the mobile phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
Article Source KBG Test Blog (http://rc.kbg.me)
