PHONE HACKING is back in the news.

ITV is currently broadcasting a seven-part drama — “The Hack”.

But there’s one Murdoch story that’s not included — the scandal involving his star reporter, Mazher Mahmood.

Mahmood was jailed in 2016 for attempting to pervert the course of justice.

A new book charts the early warnings that he was prepared to lie on oath to convict his victims.

ROGUE: The Rise and Fall of Mazher “Fake Sheikh” Mahmood — written by media commentator Roy Greenslade with Press Gang editor Paddy French — presents shocking new evidence about just how bad the “ethics, culture and practices” were at Murdoch’s News of the World, Sun on Sunday and the Sunday Times.

Hacked Off CEO Nathan Sparkes said:

Mazher Mahmood’s stings caused irreparable damage to dozens of peoples’ lives. He tarnished reputations and destroyed careers and livelihoods — not to expose wrongdoing and serve the public interest, but to generate the kinds of stories which would sell newspapers for News UK and line the pockets of its owner, Rupert Murdoch.

Yet for years, News UK executives and the Metropolitan Police turned a blind eye to his dubious methods.

This important book reveals the devastating extent of Mahmood’s activities, the impacts they had on his victims, and underlines the case for the urgent public inquiry into press and police corruption known as “Leveson Part Two”.

Mahmood had close links to Scotland Yard from rank and file detectives all the way up to the Commissioner.

He once said he had “bent police officers that are witnesses, that are informants”.

After the collapse of the Victoria Beckham kidnap trial in 2002, he boasted that he and editor Andy Coulson were invited for drinks by Met Commissioner Sir John Stevens at Scotland Yard.

According to Mahmood, Stevens “told me he felt my work on the Beckham kidnap case had been excellent and that, in his view, the evidence was overwhelming”.

Co-author Roy Greenslade said:

Although it’s nearly ten years since Mahmood was jailed, he remains central to unlocking the full extent of wrong-doing at the News of the World, the Sun on Sunday and the Sunday Times.

How did he survive a series of scandals involving the collapse of criminal prosecutions because of his tainted evidence?

The blunt answer is he was protected by editors, by police, by prosecutors and even judges who all turned a blind eye to his criminal activities.

Despite the importance of the book, the authors have been unable to find a British publishing house willing to take it on.

So they’re publishing it themselves …

… but only have enough resources to print a limited number of copies.

You can support them by donating to their crowdfunder [here].