London ( CNN ) -- When I was informed last year by police that my phone had been hacked by News of The World , I was very angry , but not altogether surprised . I was by then all too familiar with the way that tabloid newspapers thought nothing of invading my privacy , if they thought there might be a story in it . I am best known in the UK as a presenter on the BBC TV show , `` Crimewatch , '' a crime-fighting factual program , similar in purpose to America 's `` Most Wanted . '' I was on `` Crimewatch '' between 1990 and 2006 , but before , during and after my TV stint , I was also a detective with the Metropolitan Police . CNN iReport : Share your view on phone-hacking scandal . Up until 2002 my experience of the press was generally positive . On `` Crimewatch , '' I witnessed first hand the enormous benefits of working in partnership with the media to solve crime . That 's not to say there were n't times when the different agendas conflicted , but that has to be expected . That was all about to change . My then husband , a detective chief superintendent , appeared on `` Crimewatch '' to appeal for information in the unsolved 1987 murder of private detective Daniel Morgan , whose business partner Jonathan Rees was alleged to have supplied News of the World 's parent company News International with illegally obtained information . It was a gruesome case : a man killed with an ax outside a south London pub . Soon after , the Met received intelligence that suspects in the case intended to make life difficult for him . The Met took the threat so seriously we were placed under the umbrella of the witness protection unit . Morgan 's business partner and two other men were eventually charged in the killing , but the murder case against the three collapsed last year and the charges were dropped . In 2002 `` Crimewatch '' was sent an email suggesting that I was having an affair . Strangers phoned my husband 's work , attempting to find out our home address and other personal and financial details . Two vans stationed outside our house followed my husband taking the kids to school . By this stage , we feared we were being stalked by the people responsible for the murder . We took our house off the market , and warned our daughter 's headmistress of the risks of strangers hanging around the school . I became very distressed and anxious . The stress that we endured over the subsequent years contributed to the eventual breakdown of my marriage . The two vans were eventually traced back to the News of the World . The Metropolitan Police sought an explanation from the newspaper about the surveillance and the reason given was simply unbelievable . They said that they were investigating suspicions that my husband and I were having an affair with each other ! We had by then been married for four years , together for 11 and had two children . Our marriage was public knowledge -- we 'd even been pictured in Hello Magazine . In 2011 , officers from Operation Weeting , a police investigation into phone hacking , informed me that private information about me , including home address , phone numbers and detailed history had been found in the notebooks of Glenn Mulcaire , the private investigator who was jailed in 2007 for intercepting phone messages of members of the royal family . Read a timeline of the hacking scandal . In July 2012 , prosecutors said Mulcaire would face four charges relating to the alleged hacking of the phones of murdered teenager Milly Dowler and three other people . He issued a statement denying the latest charges . The dates on the entries suggested that our phones were being hacked around the same time as the other surveillance was going on . You only have to listen to the stories coming out of the inquiry to know that this kind of harassment was n't restricted to News of the World . It was widespread across the industry . There was a culture that led some of the papers to behave as if the law did not apply to them . And they got away with it because of self regulation . In 2011 I gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry into press ethics about our experiences . What I hope to see coming out of the inquiry is independent regulation , backed up by statute , that has genuine repercussions for anyone who starts to play fast and loose with the system again . I , and other victims of press harassment -- and I would like to stress that most of us are regular members of the public , not celebrities -- do n't want to have to go through this again in a few years ' time . This is an important moment in history , a chance to reassert a clean and accountable press that we can all be proud of again . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jacqui Hames . CNN asked News International for comment on the allegations made by Jacqui Hames . It declined to comment .
TV presenter Jacqui Hames ' first impression of dealing with press was positive . That changed , she says , when her husband appeared on TV to talk over a divorce . Hames says strangers rang her husband at work ; email ##ed she was having affair . Surveillance traced to News of the World , she says . Stress led to her marriage collapse .