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The News of the World’s ex-legal manager today insisted that he told
James Murdoch there was 'direct and hard evidence' that phone hacking
extended beyond a single reporter in 2008.
Tom Crone said he showed the News International chief a printout of the
now-notorious 'For Neville' email at a meeting also attended by the
paper’s then-editor Colin Myler.
The email, which contained transcripts of illegally intercepted
voicemail messages, apparently showed that hacking went beyond a single
rogue reporter.
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Email
claims: Tom Crone, pictured giving evidence to the Leveson
inquiry yesterday, today said he showed James Murdoch in
2008 there was evidence phone hacking went beyond a single
rogue reporter |
Mr Crone told the Leveson Inquiry that he had shown Mr Murdoch a number
of documents which included the 'For Neville' message during the meeting
on June 10, 2008.
'I cannot remember whether they were passed across the table to him, but
I am pretty sure I held up the front page of the email,' he said.
'I am also pretty sure that he already knew about it - in terms of it
had been described to him already, which I think the other documents
that have come out suggest anyway.'
Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal editor, was jailed
along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in January 2007 after
they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on royal aides’
phones.
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Claims:
James Murdoch was shown evidence that phone hacking was more
widespread than just one reporter, Tom Crone said |
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Former
News of the World editor Colin Myler arrives at the Leveson
Inquiry today |
Yesterday the inquiry was told Mr Murdoch was sent emails which revealed
that phone-hacking was ‘rife’ at the News of the World in 2008.
Mr Myler forwarded the executive an email exchange and added the note:
‘Unfortunately it is as bad as we feared’.
Today Mr Crone said: 'What was certainly discussed was the email - not
described as For Neville, but the damning email - and what it meant in
terms of further involvement in phone hacking beyond Goodman and
Mulcaire.
'And what was relayed to Mr Murdoch was that this document clearly was
direct and hard evidence of that being the case.'
Mr Murdoch has insisted that he was not shown the email or told that it
proved phone hacking was more widespread at the News of the World than
previously thought.
The crucial 'For Neville' message is thought to have been intended for
Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's chief reporter.
The meeting with Mr Murdoch had been arranged to discuss a claim brought
by Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor
over the hacking of his phone by the News of the World, the inquiry
heard.
Mr Crone said he only 'temporarily' breathed a sigh of relief when the
case was settled, adding: 'I was expecting another claim, frankly.'
Explaining why the paper’s publishers agreed to pay Mr Taylor £425,000
plus costs, the lawyer said the company wanted to protect its reputation
and reduce the likelihood of further expensive litigation.
Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked him: 'This might also be
interpreted as, to use a blanket term, a culture of cover-up. Would you
accept that?'
Mr Crone replied: 'No, I don’t think I would. It’s a culture of avoiding
reputational damage through bad publicity, but it certainly isn’t a
culture of cover-up if the damning documents are in the police’s
possession and in fact came from the police.'
Mr Crone also said he understood a representative of Madeleine McCann’s
family gave the News of the World permission to publish the personal
diary of the missing girl’s mother.
Kate McCann told the inquiry last month that she felt 'violated' and
like 'climbing into a hole and not coming out' when the intensely
private journal appeared in the paper on September 14, 2008.
Mr Crone said today: 'My understanding was that the representative of
the McCanns had given the OK, the permission to the head of the newsdesk
at the News of the World, to run the diaries or extracts from the
diaries. I think he had emails to support that.'
Mr Jay said: 'I have seen some documents which on one interpretation of
them broadly support what you are saying.'
Separately, appearing before the inquiry today, former News of the World
editor Colin Myler said he 'did not recognise' much of the evidence
given by Paul McMullan, the paper's ex-deputy features editor.
Mr McMullan told the hearing last month that phone hacking was in the
public interest, claimed celebrities often 'loved' being chased by
journalists, and argued that 'privacy is for paedos'.
Mr Myler said today: 'The criminality that took place, if it did take
place, at the News of the World, is one thing, and whatever acts that
individuals took part in, the full force of the law should take care of
them. I'm sure it will.
'Mr McMullan often drifted off into a world of car chases, hacking
phones, blagging, doing rather disagreeable things, and that is no world
that I recognise.'
Mr Myler took over running the News of the World in January 2007 after
Andy Coulson resigned as editor when Goodman and Mulcaire were jailed.
He spoke of losing his job as the Sunday Mirror's editor in 2001 after
publishing an interview that led to the collapse of the first criminal
trial of footballers Lee Bowyer and Jonathan Woodgate.
'Being an editor is all about learning, and you learn from experience,
and sometimes you make the wrong decision. The impact of making the
wrong decision as an editor can be severe,' he said. |
