... if all we're trying to do is get at the truth." "[Do] we really want to live in a world where the only people who can do the hacking are MI5 and MI6?" he asked. "For a brief period of about 20 years, we have actually lived in a free society where we can hack back". He scoffed at the very notion of privacy, calling it "the space bad people need to do bad things in." Lyall commented, "At times he sounded like a satirist's rendition of an amoral tabloid hack"." More recently, McMullan has been a freelance journalist. He often works in Kent with KOS Media titles, including the Kent on Sunday paper. Pub owner and politician McMullan owns several properties in Kent, giving his address as the Castle Inn, Dover, when appearing at the Leveson inquiry. In January 2011, McMullan became the landlord of The Bull public house in the village of Eastry for Punch Taverns. McMullan employed a bar manager to run the pub. After residents' complaints about noise from the pub he handed in his resignation as leaseholder. The bar manager took over and the pub was under investigation by Dover District Council and Kent Police before it closed completely. McMullan owns and runs The Castle Inn, a public house near the Port of Dover, Kent. In August 2011, he tried to apply for a licence for topless barmaids in the pub. This was later refused. As part of The Castle Inn, McMullan opened a low budget hostel called Dover Backpackers, providing accommodation in dormitory-style. He stood as an independent in the 2013 Kent County Council elections for the Dover Town Ward. He originally wanted to stand as a UKIP candidate but was not supported by the party. He came third behind the Conservatives and Labour. Personal life McMullan is the father of four children, the first two from his former marriage to former News of The World journalist Maria McMullan, and the two younger children are from a more recent relationship with a Kent local newspaper editor. McMullan is often filmed and interviewed at his pub by TV companies from all over the world including Turkey, India, Europe and Australia about phone hacking and journalism. He has written a book about the News of the World phone hacking and other practices at the paper. References 1963 births Place of birth missing (living people) Living