British police are investigating new tabloids in the country's growing phone hacking scandal, including the Trinity Mirror newspaper group as well as the U.K.'s Express Newspapers, a senior Scotland Yard official said Monday. More than 100 new allegations of "data intrusion" also are being probed.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers' comments indicated that the scandal, which erupted last year at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World and has involved hundreds of victims, could end up burning the now-defunct tabloid's U.K. competitors as well.

Akers gave as an example payments of tens of thousands of dollars allegedly made to the same prison officer by all three newspaper groups.

"Our assessment is that there are reasonable grounds to suspect offenses have been committed and that the majority of these stories reveal very limited material of genuine public interest," Akers told a judge-led inquiry into media ethics.

Separately, prosecutors said they would be announcing Tuesday whether to levy criminal charges against an unspecified number of journalists caught up in the phone hacking investigation.

More than 40 journalists and public officials have been arrested as part of the sprawling inquiry. Only a handful, including former News Internationalchief executive Rebekah Brooks, have been charged. Brooks has denied wrongdoing

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