28 'NoTW' journalists involved in phone hacking scandal

At least 28 journalists were involved in the News of the World phone hacking scandal that ultimately forced owner Rupert Murdoch to shut down the newspaper, a media report said on Tuesday.

The names of the 28 people have been found in the 11,000 pages of notes written by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, The Sun reported.

Prime Minister David Cameron set up a probe after it emerged in July that the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was hacked in 2002.

Robert Jay, counsel to the inquiry, said: "The scale of this activity gives rise to the powerful inference that it must have occupied Mulcaire full time."

Mulcaire's notes showed there were 5,795 potential victims.

He and Clive Goodman, former News of the World royal editor, were jailed for hacking in 2007. The newspaper was closed by its publishers News International.

The counsel said the journalists' names that Mulcaire wrote in his notes showed that Goodman was not a "rogue reporter".

"We have at least 27 other News International employees. This fact alone suggests wide-ranging illegal activity within the organisation at the relevant time," he said.