Glenn Michael Mulcaire (born 8 September 1970) is an English private investigator and former non-league footballer. He was closely involved in the

News International phone hacking scandal The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct ''News of the World'' and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police b ...

, and was imprisoned for six months in 2007 for his role in phone hacking and given a six-month suspended sentence at the hacking trial of 2013–14.

Football career

Mulcaire is a former non-league footballer who played in the lower tiers of the English football league system, including a spell at the then newly formed AFC Wimbledon, when he was also known as "Trigger". He previously played for Fulham youth team, Dorking, Egham Town and Harrow Borough. Mulcaire became the first man to score a goal for AFC Wimbledon when playing against Bromley in July 2002. Mulcaire played in several pre-season friendlies and for the newly formed AFC Wimbledon scoring twice (in their third and fourth games). Once the 2002–03 season started he only started once and appeared as a substitute six times. His last match was as a sub in a 12 October 2002 Premier Challenge Cup game. He later played for and managed Netherne Village, which was regarded as the club's reserve team for the 2002–03 season. He left in August 2003 after sustaining an injury.

Investigator career

Mulcaire applied for a position with a branch of the special forces, hoping to progress to

Defence Intelligence Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...

, but was rejected as being too young. He then began work tracking individuals for private commercial

intelligence assessment Intelligence assessment, or simply intel, is the development of behavior forecasts or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organisation, based on wide ranges of available overt and covert information (intelligence). Assessments d ...

. After doing some work for ''News of the World'', he was urged to establish his own consultancy and work exclusively for the paper. He then went on to work in 2010 for Lord Stevens' security and intelligence company 'Quest' as a senior investigator.

''News of the World'' and phone hacking scandal

In January 2007, Mulcaire was found guilty of illegally intercepting phone messages from

Clarence House Clarence House is a royal residence on The Mall in the City of Westminster, London. It was built in 1825–1827, adjacent to St James's Palace, for the Duke of Clarence, the future king William IV. Over the years, it has undergone much exten ...

and imprisoned for six months after pleading guilty; his co-conspirator '' News of the World'' royal editor

Clive Goodman Clive Goodman (born 17 September 1957, in Hammersmith, London) is an English journalist, former royal editor and reporter for the ''News of the World''. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messa ...

was sentenced to four months. Renewed controversy over the phone hacking scandal led to the closure of the ''News of the World'' in July 2011. He publicly apologised to those affected by his activities. By August 2012, the Metropolitan Police, using documents obtained from raiding Mulcaire's office, had identified 4,744 potential victims of phone hacking by ''News of the World''. Since police renewed investigations in 2011, 90 people have been arrested and 16 formally charged with crimes, including Mulcaire, in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information. Mulcaire was one of the defendants in phone hacking trial of 2013–14 which lasted eight months. Mulcaire pleaded guilty and on 4 July 2014, was sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months and ordered to undertake 200 hours unpaid work for the community. This was the lightest sentence of all the defendants and the judge remarked that he was the lucky one, expressing his view that Mulcaire's prior sentence was "too short to reflect the full extent of your phone hacking activities". At the trial,

Rebekah Brooks Rebekah Mary Brooks (; born 27 May 1968) is a British media executive and former journalist and newspaper editor. She has been chief executive officer of News UK since 2015. She was previously CEO of News International from 2009 to 2011 and w ...

was acquitted of all charges. Andy Coulson was found guilty and sentenced to eighteen months in prison.

Personal life

Mulcaire has been married to Alison for over 20 years and has five children. His grandfather served in the Irish Guards and was employed by the War Office. He was born to a mother from the north-east of England and an Irish father, and raised in World's End, Chelsea. Since the phone hacking scandal, he has not been in regular employment but received £80,000 from ''News of the World'' in a confidentiality deal related to his planned book, provisionally titled ''Hear to Here: The Inside Story of the Royal Household Tapes and The Murky World of the Media''. In 2014, it was reported that he had been made bankrupt.

References

External links

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Glenn Mulcaire: In his own words, private detective at heart of phone-tapping scandal
Mark Hughes and Cahal Milmo, ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 8 September 2010
BBC Profile: Glenn Mulcaire
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...