Despite Milly Dowler’s phone allegedly being hacked by the News of the World during the time she was editor, Rebekah Brooks is not planning to resign.
Brooks, who is now chief executive of UK operations for News International – which owns the News of the World – is expected to tell staff later today that she is shocked by allegations that the paper hacked Dowler’s phone after the teenager disappeared in 2002.
She denies any knowledge of the phone hacking and claims that the paper was unaware of it.
Rupert Murdoch is understood to be supporting Brooks and has not called for her to resign.
"He is backing her 100%", said a News International executive.
According to reports, police will meet News of the World executives to discuss the phone hacking.
Detectives from Scotland Yard are believed to have found evidence that Milly Dowler’s voicemail was listened to in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World.
Reportedly, messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly's disappearance to free up space for more messages. As a result, the teenager’s family and friends wrongly concluded that she might still be alive. Police also feared evidence may have been destroyed.
Milly's parents, Sally and Bob, are preparing to sue the News Of The World, saying they had been given "false hope" she might still be alive after voicemail messages on the phone were deleted in the days after she vanished.
Prime Minister David Cameron has said he is "appalled" by allegations.
Cameron, who is currently visiting troops in Afghanistan, said: "If they are true this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation.
"What I've read in the papers is quite shocking, that someone could do this, knowing that the police were trying to find this person and find out what happened.”
"That is the absolute priority as a police investigation."
Labour is calling for an independent inquiry into journalistic practices at the News of the World.
