News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire may have targeted 2,000 more people than previously acknowledged

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The number of possible victims of phone hacking by the News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire is now close to 5,800, the Metropolitan police have confirmed.

This is 2,000 more than previously identified by detectives tasked with trawling through 11,000 pages of notes seized from Mulcaire's home.

It will reinforce claims, by solicitors acting for victims and by MPs investigating phone hacking for a parliamentary select committee, that hacking was conducted on an "industrial scale" at News of the World.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "It is not possible to give a precise figure about the number of people whose phones have actually been hacked but we can confirm that as of today's date, 3 November 2011, the current number of potentially identifiable persons who appear in the material, and who may therefore be victims, where names are noted, is 5,795. This figure is very likely to be revised in the future as a result of further analysis."

The Guardian's original story in 2009 suggested that between 2,000 and 3,000 individuals may have been victims of phone hacking and this was dismissed at the time.

Assistant commissioner John Yates said, after reviewed the first inquiry, that there were "hundreds, not thousands" of potential victims.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the number referred to the list of full identifiable first and second names in Mulcaire's notes but it may not be the final figure.

In July this year, deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, the senior detective in charge of the Operating Weeting inquiry into phone hacking said there were just under 4,000 victims identified at that time by officers.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard added "the figure of 3,870 first and second names given by DAC Akers at the home affairs committee in July 2011 referred to material recovered from Glen Mulcaire that had been put on a searchable database". He said Operating Weeting continues to analyse relevant material.

It is known that Mulcaire kept meticulous notes of his activities, with names of victims and of those whose messages he may have intercepted.

He was jailed in 2007 for charges related to phone hacking but is now facing more than 40 more civil cases being taken by celebrities such as Hugh Grant, Jemima Khan and crime victims such as Shaun Russell.

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