They All Said I Was Mad!

Sadly, this photo of the front page is all I can get;the online Sunday Express is subscription only.
But I can certainly give you a precis:
Matthew Mellon was arrested by Scotland Yard on charges of illegal bugging(wiretaps) and hacking.
He was betrayed by an employee of BT who contacted police.
They uncovered a 'bizarre' network of illegal wiretapping and hacking which involved private detectives and private police numbers, selling access to information to rivals for a fee.

Seventeen men and one woman have been charged with criminal offences.
The 18 will appear in court on charges of accessing confidential NHS files for the purposes of blackmail, modifying computer material and falsifying invoices.
Other charges include conducting surveillance on Law Enforcement agencies and witnesses.


Fairly Secret Army.

Defeated.

Now, for the record(in case of blackmail)I have been suspicious of many things over the last fifteen years, and twice confined to Roundhay Wing of Leeds Hospital until I took my medicine, although on the second occasion (1999), I found enough code violations to threaten them with closure so they let me go.
In 1999 I contacted MI5 on confidential business; I also took my first holiday to Canada and the USA, as things were altogether intolerable for me in this country.
My phone was interfered with, as when I tried to ring Manchester airport I received a load of gobbledegook followed by the message from Pinky's answering machine.
He also suggested that my cheap flight(Royal, as it was) was 'thanks to MI5'.

Of course with the 'madness' and the 'medication' etc I was supposed to bury all this and forget about it.
Fact is, I assume my land line is bugged.
I actually hear it bleep off around 930pm most nights as the buggers have enough and hang up.

It's funny how you can get a grim satisfaction from yanking people's chains.

I think it has to be a 'fairly secret army', since MI5 are professionals who need a reason to bug people.
Fact is, I say more of interest publicly than I ever do in private, so it is extremely unlikely that Law Enforcement would waste 6 years, and repeated authorisations from the Home Secretary and thousands of man-hours, when there are bad guys to be caught.

So it could only be the actually mad.