News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks admits: We did keep watch on detective

Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, admitted that reporters at the News of the World placed a Scotland Yard detective under surveillance during a major murder investigation, the Standard can reveal.

The officer, Det Supt Dave Cook, discovered he was being watched as he headed a new inquiry into the murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator who was found in a pub car park in south London 24 years ago with an axe buried in his head.

Mr Cook had appeared in a Crimewatch programme in June 2002 to make a fresh appeal about the case, one of London's most notorious unsolved murders.
The main suspects for the murder in 1987 included employees of Southern Investigations, a private investigation agency which has also carried out work for the News of the World.

The detective found he was being watched by men in a van as he walked his dog. Inquiries revealed the vehicle was leased to the Sunday newspaper.
It happened just three months after the alleged hacking into Milly Dowler's phone.

Mr Cook challenged Ms Brooks, then Wade, at a meeting in December 2002 when she was editor of the newspaper.

She admitted that the newspaper had been following the detective but claimed the newspaper was investigating whether or not Mr Cook was having an affair with Crimewatch presenter and police officer Jacqui Hames - his wife and the mother of their two children.

During the meeting Ms Brooks apologised for upsetting the couple but insisted that it was because of reports that they were having an affair.

A News International spokesman said he could not confirm or deny the claims.
At the time Scotland Yard believed the surveillance was ordered by former News of the World executive Alex Marunchak.

Alastair Morgan, the brother of the murdered private investigator, told Channel 4 News that Mr Cook had told him about the surveillance.
Police were so concerned about the development that a witness protection unit was mobilised - as well as a police counter surveillance unit.

Mr Cook and Miss Hames were informed two months ago that their personal details were found in the notes of News of the World investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

No one has been found guilty of Mr Morgan's murder.

In March, Scotland Yard apologised to the Morgan family after the trial of three men accused of the murder collapsed at the Old Bailey.