Phone hacking: Glenn Mulcaire faces fresh legal challenge

A woman who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a minor celebrity plans to sue former News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, after Scotland Yard confirmed her name was found in his notebook. The fresh claim follows a string of public figures, including the actor Sienna Miller and comedian Steve Coogan , launching legal action against the private eye and the paper for breach of privacy. The woman, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said she was targeted by Mulcaire following the collapse of a 2005 court case in which she attempted to bring sexual assualt charges against a "minor celebrity". Scotland Yard informed the woman earlier this year that her name and phone number – along with the contact details of her boyfriend and another close friend – were found on documents seized from Mulcaire in 2006. "The court case fell apart and suddenly, although I had been granted anonymity, the press were all over my house," she told a BBC Radio 4 documentary broadcast on Thursday. "I don't know how they found out my name or where I was but they [journalists] were everywhere. Suddenly, seemingly, they knew everything. I was traumatised, I was frightened. I now realise my mobile phone was maybe being hacked into and information was being got about me that way." The woman doubted the assertion that phone hacking was confined to the Rupert Murdoch-owned title, which employed Mulcaire at that time. "Certainly there was more than one paper who were hounding us, waiting outside the house and shouting through the letterbox – I don't know how they knew where I lived. They were texting us and phoning us – I don't know how they got our numbers," she said. Scotland Yard said there was no evidence that her voicemail had been intercepted but confirmed that her phone number and other details were found in Mulcaire's documents. Mulcaire was jailed in January 2007 for hacking phones on behalf of the News of the World. A former private investigator separately told the Radio 4 programme that she obtained information illegally for "every tabloid except the Daily Star" in the 1990s. This investigator, who was secretly recorded by the BBC, was convicted and fined in 1997 for obtaining ex-directory phone numbers and medical records for journalists. She said: "I did work for virtually all of the tabloids. It was a job, I did it. I always felt if I didn't do it then somebody else would. I could list you four or five different people who would have done it." Scotland Yard launched a fresh investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World last month after the tabloid sacked Ian Edmondson, its assistant editor (news), and passed "significant new information" to the police. Mulcaire – who was on a £100,000-a-year contract with the News of the World before he was convicted – admitted passing phone intercept information to several people on the tabloid's news desk last week. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".