THE mother of the youngest soldier killed in Afghanistan has described the News of the World phone hacking scandal as professional grief-mongering.

Lucy Aldridge, of Bredenbury, doesn’t know if her mobile phone was one of those owned by relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to be targeted but has called for more sensitive reporting.

Her 18-year-old son William was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while serving with 2nd Battalion the Rifles in Helmand province on July 10, 2009.

With the anniversary of William’s death tomorrow (Saturday) Miss Aldridge said it was a worrying and distressing time not only for her and her family but others affected by similar losses.

She said: “The anniversaries are tough enough to deal with without this kind of media coverage. There has been far too much negative and counter-productive reporting surrounding bereaved families. All it serves to do is dredge up particularly raw emotions.

“We live this life with constant reminders of what is missing without the intervention of poor reporting and scandal. We are subjected to this growing phenomenon that I can only describe as professional grief mongering.”

She feels the revelation could act to destroy support and co-operation with the armed forces and be a setback in the understanding of bereavement unless something is done to improve the media’s code of conduct.

“There needs to be some responsibility taken by all media sources to protect the vulnerable families, which is something that does not exist. It is without doubt an invasion of privacy, this is not the freedom of the press.

“I can’t fathom why when News International has been so much at the forefront of supporting the armed forces, they started this line of reporting.”