The News of the World offered to give Surrey police a copy of hacked voicemails from the mobile phone of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, an Old Bailey jury has been told.  Sarah McGregor, head of communications at Surrey police during the Dowler investigation, said the newspaper claimed to have got her mobile number and pin "from school friends".  The phone-hacking trial heard that the Sunday tabloid's then managing editor Stuart Kuttner had been in contact with the force on Saturday 13 April 2002 to inform them of a voice message left by a recruitment agency in Telford on the 13-year-old's phone.  He told an officer that the newspaper had Dowler's mobile number and pin, it was claimed.  The force's initial response was the message may have been a hoax. McGregor said that a "professional hoaxer" had previously contacted Dowler's mother to wish her a happy birthday.  McGregor said she later spoke to Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's news editor, who took her through the message. "He said they had got the mobile phone number and pin number from school friends," she said.  Thurlbeck also told her they had spoken to the recruitment agency and that it had been confirmed Dowler, whose real first name was Amanda, was registered with them and they had five reporters on the story, she said.  The newspaper ran two versions of the story the following day. The first edition ran a page 9 article quoting from the voicemails. In later editions the story was amended and run on page 30, the court heard.  McGregor said Kuttner then sent her an email six days later, on 20 April, asking about updates on the police investigation. She said Kuttner wrote of the "help" the paper had offered the police, in particular with regard to the recruitment agency voicemail, writing "and we offered a copy of the tape recording of the messages and other assistance".  McGregor said police later established that the message had been left for a "nana" and not a "Milly" or a "Mandy" and had probably been left through misdialling.  When she told News of the World crime reporter Ricky Sutton that police believed it was a "mix-up" and a wrong number, he replied: "That's not true."  She said Sutton said: "It's inconceivable. There are other messages on her phone." McGregor said Sutton then quoted one message: "It's America, take it or leave it."  She added: "He said that the News of the World were moving their investigation up north.  "He added 'Milly has been up there in person and has registered and applied for a job in a factory. We know this 100%. We are absolutely certain.'"  Cross-examining Jonathan Caplan QC, for Kuttner, suggested there had been a "mix-up" in McGregor's notes at the time, and the information about the mobile number and pin had come from Thurlbeck rather than Kuttner.  "We would suggest Mr Kuttner did not mention the pin number," said Caplan. "The reference to the pin number came from Neville Thurlbeck in that second call," he said.  McGregor said her notes were "accurate" and she had written them down as the information was relayed to her on the day.  Caplan asked her: "When you were told on 13 April that Milly's voicemails had been accessed by the News of the World did that not cause you to raise with anybody the possibility that this should be investigated?"  McGregor replied: "I am not a detective and I was not working as an investigative officer, It would not be my decision."  Caplan asked: "Did any Surrey police officer say to you at the time this should be investigated?" "No, they did not," she replied.  She agreed with Caplan that at a "gold" meeting of senior investigative officers held on 16 April, nothing was mentioned about investigating how the News of the World had the voicemails.  The court heard there was fierce competition between the News of the World and the Sun over which paper could offer a reward in the Dowler case. While Surrey's then chief constable was talking to the Sun, the assistant chief constable was talking to the News of the World. The police decided both papers could run a joint reward.  Kuttner sent an email to McGregor on 1 May saying he was "unhappy" about the Sun being involved, and the Sunday paper had "better circulation and more resources", said McGregor.  Kuttner told her that "Rebekah Wade [as Brooks was then] has stated that she couldn't do this on a joint basis," she said.  When a deal was struck, with both papers offering £50,000 each in reward money, the court heard she received a call from Sutton, who said "You have killed us stone dead in the water" before putting the phone down.  McGregor confirmed that at no time had she spoken to Andy Coulson, News of the World deputy editor at the time.  The trial is in its second day of evidence and has been discussing the Dowler story in relation to a charge faced by Coulson and Kuttner that they were involved in a conspiracy to hack phones, which they deny.
Surrey force's head of communications tells phone-hacking trial that managing editor said offer of help included copy of tape