No evidence NOTW deleted Dowler's messages

There is no evidence that News of the World journalists deleted a murdered schoolgirl's mobile phone messages, British police have said.

It was a report last July that the paper's journalists had deleted voicemails on Milly Dowler's phone in 2002, giving her parents false hope she was still alive, that lit a fire under a simmering scandal over phone hacking.

The claim led to public revulsion and the closure of Rupert Murdoch's 165-year-old paper.

In the ensuing outcry, Mr Murdoch dropped a $12 billion bid for satellite broadcaster BSkyB, and personally donated £1m to charities nominated by the Dowler family.

News International, the British arm of his News Corp media group, paid the family a further £2m as Mr Murdoch called the paper's behaviour towards them "abhorrent".

Britain's media industry, politicians and police have been hit by revelations that the paper's journalists and private investigators illegally intercepted voicemail on a large scale.

Prime Minister David Cameron set up an inquiry into newspaper practices, headed by senior judge Brian Leveson.

Yesterday the inquiry was told that, although it was clear that the News of the World had hacked Milly Dowler's phone, it was unlikely it was responsible for deleting her messages.

The most likely explanation was that the voicemails had been automatically removed after a 72-hour limit, said Neil Garnham, a lawyer for London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

He said that Glenn Mulcaire, a detective working for the News of the World who was jailed for phone hacking in 2007, had not been assigned by the paper to the Dowler case until after the messages were deleted in March 2002.

"It is conceivable that other News International journalists deleted the voicemails. But the MPS has no evidence to support that proposition, and current inquiries suggest it is unlikely," Mr Garnham said.

David Sherborne, a lawyer representing the Dowlers and other victims of press intrusion, said the police statement "does not mean that no one else at News International was responsible by another means of accessing those voicemails in that time".

He said another News International journalist, whom he declined to name, had also had the girl's phone number and access code.