New Phone- Tapping Controversy In U.K.?

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 17

New Phone- Tapping Controversy In U.K.?

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, November 30. Britain appears to be on the verge of a new controversy over the ethics of official telephonetapping as the result of a disclosure that the police handed over evidence obtained in this way to the General Medical Council for use in disciplinary proceedings last week against a doctor.

Dr. Kenneth Fox was struck off the medical register because of an improper association with a married woman patient The case was given wide publicity. The police listened in to an alleged conversation between Dr. Fox and a neighbour. Their action brought a vehement protest last night from Mr Stanley Mayne, who leads a campaign for the limitation of secret police powers and who is also general secretary of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants.

He said it was a “disgrace" and contrary to the recommendations of the official Birkett committee of inquiry, which was appointed in 1957 after a classic telephone-tapping case involving

an Irish lawyer, Mr Patrick Marrinan. | Mr Mayne said: “The fact that there, is no privacy on our private telephones is horrifying to everyone. It is now obvious that this iniquitous process is still going on and to what extent no one knows. “Once this pernicious business of trapping people in this way becomes a normal part of public life in this country liberty, in any real sense of the word, has gone. “It can only be hoped that the Home Secretary (Mr R. A. Butler), who is already concerned about the bad public relations of the police, will realise that this lowers the police still further i in public estimation,” he said.