A Dundee woman whose grandson was killed in Afghanistan has said she is delighted at the demise of a tabloid newspaper that sank from “the gutter to the sewer” over the phone hacking scandal.
Joan Humphreys (66) was speaking after it emerged the News of the World may have targeted the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Her grandson Private Kevin Elliot, from Douglas, was killed in Helmand province two years ago while serving with The Black Watch. He was just 24.
Since his death, Mrs Humphreys has been a prominent anti-war campaigner and a candidate for the Scottish Socialist Party.
Security around mobile phone voicemails had been tightened by the time of Pte Elliot’s death so she and her family weren’t targeted.
However, she said the exploitation of the families of servicemen who died earlier was sickening and that other families she had spoken to were outraged by the latest revelations.
Mrs Humphreys said, “I think that overall the families of people who have died have been treated quite badly in many ways but the phone hacking is appalling.
“Rupert Murdoch has said the allegations are deplorable and unacceptable but it sounds like he is describing us complaining about it rather than what happened.
“I have spoken to a couple of other families about it and everyone is just completely disgusted. They are all very angry, disgusted, and distressed.”‘Repulsive’She added, “It looks like they may have given the police money to get details what they have done to Milly Dowler is repulsive.
“The fact they would stoop to that level is beyond belief, even for the Murdoch press. They have gone from the gutter to the sewer.”
Pte Elliott was killed alongside Clackmannanshire-born Stuart Millar in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Afghanistan’s Babaji district in August 2009.
The pair were serving with The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland and were on their first tour in Afghanistan.
They were on foot patrol when attacked.
A coroner later ruled they had been unlawfully killed.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence refused to say whether the families of any marines based at RM Condor in Arbroath had been targeted by the newspaper.Families’ traumaThree members of the 45 Commando Group were killed on the same day in Afghanistan in 2008.
Lance Corporal Steven Fellows (26), from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, was killed when an explosion struck his vehicle while on patrol in Sangin.
Later a suicide attack in Sangin by a 13-year-old boy with an explosive-laden wheelbarrow claimed the lives of Sergeant John Manuel (38), from Gateshead, Northumberland, and Corporal Marc Birch (26), Northamptonshire.
Marine Damian Davies, of Commando Logistics Regiment, also died in the attack.
Fife veteran Rob Scott, who chairs the local branch of The Black Watch Association, said there had been no suggestion any bereaved families in the area had fallen victim to the phone hacking scandal.
However he feared there were more revelations were to come.
“Hopefully this won’t affect any of the families of people we have lost here. I would hate to think that they have been hacked,” he said.
“The sad thing about it is these families are going through really traumatic times.
“Obviously there is more to come out but let’s hope we haven’t had anything like that going on here.”