Timeline: how the News of the World phone-hacking scandal developed

From Buckingham Palace calling in Scotland Yard in 2005 to court papers lodged by Sienna Miller's lawyers today

December 2005

• Buckingham Palace suspects interference with voicemail of Prince William and royal staff, and calls in Scotland Yard.

May 2006

• Detectives tell prosecutors that phone call data shows "a vast number of public figures" have had their voicemail intercepted.

August 2006

• Police arrest Goodman and Mulcaire, seize computer records, paperwork and audiotapes but decide not to investigate it. No other journalists are interviewed.

January 2007

• Goodman and Mulcaire are jailed. Prosecutors identify only eight victims. Andy Coulson resigns as editor, claiming to have known nothing.

May 2007

• Press Complaints Commission publishes hacking report, finding no further evidence of wrongdoing.

July 2007

• Coulson appointed as media adviser to David Cameron.

July 2009

• The Guardian reveals that one of the eight victims, Gordon Taylor, has been paid £1m to drop legal action that would have named other News of the World journalists.

September 2009

• Scotland Yard discloses that it found suspected victims in government, military and police as well as royal household.

November 2009

• PCC publishes second report, finding no further evidence of wrongdoing.

February 2010

• Commons media select committee finds it "inconceivable" that Goodman acted alone.

March 2010

• The Guardian reveals that another of the eight victims, Max Clifford, has been paid £1m to drop legal action that would have named other News of the World journalists.

April 2010

• News of the World suspends feature writer Dan Evans amid new hacking allegations.

September 2010

• New York Times quotes a former NoW reporter, Sean Hoare, claiming Coulson actively encouraged hacking.

• The Guardian quotes a former NoW executive, Paul McMullan, saying Coulson must have known about hacking.

• Scotland Yard reopens inquiry, looking only at "new" evidence, opting to question Hoare and McMullan as suspects, not witnesses.

• The former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott and others launch legal action seeking a judicial review of Scotland Yard investigation.

December 2010

• Prosecutors announce the Scotland Yard inquiry has found no new evidence of crime.

• Sienna Miller's lawyers announce they have found new evidence in the material seized by Scotland Yard in August 2006.

News of the World phone-hacking scandalNewspapers & magazinesNews of the WorldNational newspapersNewspapersNick Davies
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