Suspected

Question

Hi,"Fresh evidence emerged yesterday of the extensive cover-up mounted by News International's executives to frustrate civil court cases against the company that suspected phone-hacking victims have brought forward." [From The Independent.]Are there victims who are suspected or is there the phone-hacking which is such?Thank you.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Anonymous"Fresh evidence emerged yesterday of the extensive cover-up mounted by News International's executives to frustrate civil court cases against the company that suspected phone-hacking victims have brought forward."

My reading is that there are suspected to be phone-hacking victims.

I don't blame you for asking. It is a strange way to put the statement.

One would expect "suspected phone-hacking," but technically, the sentence doesn't speculate on whether or not the cases have merit.

The sentence has found a way to lump the two together: the (suspected) hacking AND its victims.

When you ask, "Are there victims who are suspected," we're tempted to read it as "Are these people suspects in the alleged crime?"

The sense of the adjective / (verb / noun) is more like the casual "I suspect there are many victims."

It's also tempting to read "against the company that" as an explanation of which company,
rather than which court cases. (The antecedent of "that" is "cases.")

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you, Avangi, for your useful reply.

Suspected

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