Surrey police force has confirmed it knew that Milly Dowler‘s phone was hacked by a News of the World employee in 2002, when it was investigating the murdered schoolgirl‘s disappearance.

The Surrey chief constable, Mark Rowley, said the News of the World, which closed in July this year, contacted members of the force‘s murder inquiry team in April 2002 with information that indicated someone at the title had intercepted messages left on Dowler‘s mobile.