Milly Dowler review 'won't halt inquiry'

Lord Justice Leveson insisted today that his inquiry into press standards will continue whatever the outcome of inquiries into how Milly Dowler's voicemails came to be deleted.

A lawyer for Scotland Yard said in December it was "unlikely" that News International journalists erased messages from the schoolgirl's phone three days after she went missing in 2002.

The disclosure prompted criticism of the Guardian, which reported in July that the News of the World had deleted voicemails from 13-year-old Milly's phone to make room for new ones, giving her parents false hope she was still alive.

Lord Justice Leveson said today he had been given a submission from the Guardian about how it came to publish its original story.

He told the hearing he was "just about to receive" a review into the deletion of Milly's messages carried out by the Metropolitan Police with the help of Surrey Police.

The inquiry chairman said he intended this material to be made public, although some sections will have to be blanked out.

He added: "I can make it clear, however, that whatever the outcome of this new evidence I have no intention of suggesting either to the Home Secretary or to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport that as a result this inquiry is no longer justified."

PA