IN case anyone missed it, let me underline the scandal that was outlined in a hearing in London on Thursday, December 15.

Cleveland Police, the force that was riddled with one embarrassment after another during my 17 years as editor of this newspaper, admitted abusing legal phone-tapping powers which were supposed to be used to fight terrorism and other serious crime.

The panel of top judges, sitting as the Investigative Powers Tribunal, heard that Cleveland Police officers weren't tapping phones to catch would-be bombers – they were using the laws in a desperate bid to track down a mole leaking potentially embarrassing information to the media.

Police officers and a solicitor were targeted – and so was The Northern Echo. The paper's main switchboard was secretly monitored for 48 hours. People phoning in with death notices, members of the public calling to pass on information, advertisers wanting to promote their services would all have had their calls secretly screened.

Individual journalists covering Teesside, Graeme Hetherington and Julia Breen, also had their phone extensions hacked at our head office in Darlington. And there was me, thinking that police forces were short of resources.

Cleveland Police admitted four breaches of the legislation. The force denies the allegation relating to the individual journalists but the judges have indicated that it will be found guilty of acting unlawfully in that matter too.

A full adjudication will not be made public until early next year but it is already clear that Cleveland Police abused the power entrusted to it to tackle serious crime. As The Northern Echo's front page headline on Friday morning described it, the force was "a law unto itself".

So, how worried should we be by these revelations? In my view, very worried indeed – every on of us who believes in freedom of expression – because it is no exaggeration to say that this was Big Brother coming true. A police force, funded by the taxpayer, was unlawfully snooping, spying, invading people's privacy without public interest justification.

In fact, we should be more than worried. We should be angry. As the editor of this paper at the time of this appalling, arrogant abuse of power, it makes my blood boil and it's hard not to wonder what else may have been going on behind the cloak of secrecy?

It is entirely right that News International journalists found guilty of phone hacking had the book thrown at them. It was abhorrent behaviour by national tabloid journalists and there could be no excuse. The News of the World was shut down as a result.

But we must also not underestimate the significance of a police force, here in the North-East, hacking journalists phones to track down a whistle-blower. It is nothing short of a disgrace.