London:
A lawyer for the family of a murdered British schoolgirl has accused The News of the World tabloid newspaper of hacking into her mobile phone after she went missing.
The new claims add to a widening scandal surrounding the tabloid, which is under police investigation and battling lawsuits into its alleged phone-hacking activities.
Lawyer Mark Lewis on Monday suggested that The News of the World hacked into the phone voicemail of 13-year-old Milly Dowler when she was first reported missing in 2002 and said the alleged operation could have jeopardised the police investigation.
Dowler was abducted while heading home from school in Walton-on-Thames, south of London, sparking a nationwide search.
Her remains were found in woodlands six months later by mushroom pickers.
Levi Bellfield, a man already serving two life sentences for killing 19-year-old Marsha McDonnell and French college student Amelie Delagrange, 22, was found guilty of murdering Dowler on 23 June.
The Guardian newspaper on Monday reported that an investigation it conducted found that The News of the World not only hacked recorded messages left by Dowler's family and friends in the period that the schoolgirl was missing, but also deleted the messages in a bid to free up space for more messages.
Lewis said Dowler's parents were pursuing a claim for damages from the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid.
Meanwhile Labour MP Tom Watson said it was a "despicable and evil act" as he raised the issue in the Commons on Monday.
Former Deputy Prime Minister and suspected victim of phone hacking suggested the newspaper may have committed a "criminal offence."
"I think nobody can possibly understand that this hacking could go to the extent of hacking the original messages, and allowing space so you could get more messages for more stories. That's interfering with evidence, that's a criminal offence," he told Sky News.
News International, the publisher of the newspaper, said the allegations were of "great concern" and said it would be conducting its own inquiry.
The company has admitted wrongdoing and reached cash settlements with several people who claimed their phones were hacked into.
A private investigator and a royal editor who worked for News of the World were jailed in 2007 for tapping the phones of royal household staff.