Authorities: George Michael Not Asked to Testify on British Phone Hacking Scandal
The Leveson Inquiry – the group in charge of investigating the British tabloid phone hacking scandal – has said they never asked George Michael to appear before them, after the pop star claimed he’d declined to speak, the BBC reports.
“We have never made a direct approach to George Michael to appear at the inquiry,” said a spokesperson.
Michael wrote on Twitter today, “I was asked to talk to the Leveson inquiry, but I declined. It’s all bullshit.” The singer was named as a possible victim of the scandal that resulted in the shuttering of the tabloid News of the World. The tabloid allegedly got a lead on his DUI arrest after hacking his phone.
“The best [they] can do is ‘enquiry’ after inquiry, and no actual criminal prosecutions?” Michael continued. “Why on earth are the rights of the royal family . . . more important than those of Milly Dowler’s parents, or of any of the hundreds of people whose lives have been violated by the press?
“The day they make this sham real and start genuinely prosecuting people, I would [be] more than happy to help. 🙂 . . . till then, what’s the point.”
Last July, just days after News of the World had been shut down, Michael wrote on Twitter that British authorities had asked him to give evidence regarding his comments about Rebekkah Brooks, the tabloid’s editor. Michael had claimed that Brooks snuck into his home and told him “that it was never the public that came to them with information.”
Around the same time last summer, Paul McCartney also said he’d been hacked and was expecting to speak with authorities as well.
This past February, pop singer Charlotte Church won a settlement of 600,000 pounds ($951,400) in damages plus 300,000 pounds ($476,000) in legal costs after claiming that 33 stories written about her in News of the World contained information obtained by journalists illegally tapping her and her family’s phones and voicemail.