A private investigator hired by Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tailed dozens of celebrities and politicians, including Prince William, Angelia Jolie and the parents of Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe, the BBC said Tuesday.
Retired cop and private eye Derek Webb confirmed he was hired by Murdoch's shuttered paper to follow Kate Middleton's husband in 2006 in Gloucestershire, western England.
According to Webb, William, 29, and his security staff had no idea the royal was being followed. Chelsy Davy, the ex-girlfriend of William's brother, Prince Harry, was also a target.
"Basically I would write down what they were wearing at the time, what car they were in, who they met, the location they met, the times — the times were very important — and I would keep that," Webb said.
Webb worked for News of the World for eight years until it shut down in July amid a wiretapping scandal in which the tabloid's staff hired private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile voicemail accounts.
"News of the World is in the business of holding others to account," James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, said at the time. "But it failed when it came to itself."
The paper had been in operation for 168 years.
