Rupert Murdoch and the Corruption of the British Media

[Douglas Caddy]

News Group asked about lawyer's children

By Sam Marsden

The Independent

Tuesday 06 December 2011

[View video]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/news-group-asked-about-lawyers-children-6273003.html

The News of the World's publishers inquired about the price of obtaining information about the young children of a lawyer for alleged phone-hacking victims, the Leveson Inquiry heard today.

Charlotte Harris described seeing documents that revealed how she was put under surveillance by News Group Newspapers (NGN) and contained private details about her family.

She said it was natural as a mother to feel "terribly uncomfortable" about the idea of people investigating her children, who were aged two and four at the time.

Ms Harris, who represents alleged hacking victims including Ulrika Jonsson, former Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten and sports agent Sky Andrew, said she was given an insight into her clients' lives after learning a private detective had spied on her.

"One of the difficulties with surveillance, and I hear this from clients but I also speak for myself, is you don't really know what happened when," she said.

"It is what you don't know that can cause stress. That in itself might be a new form of harassment to look into."

The media lawyer, of leading London firm Mishcon de Reya, told the inquiry into press standards she first learned in May that she had been placed under surveillance.

She contacted Simon Greenberg, director of corporate affairs for NGN's parent company News International, who in September informed her that he had uncovered more papers relating to what happened.

Ms Harris said in a witness statement: "The documents contain comments on my private life and that of my family, for example private information contained within an email from (NGN solicitor) Julian Pike to a private investigator in May 2010, and further emails about the price of obtaining information relating to my children, then aged two and four.

"There can be no justification for this conduct. The motive was to attempt to discredit those solicitors who were conducting the phone-hacking cases.

"The reports were prepared in order to find a way of stopping us acting in these cases."

The inquiry heard that NGN suspected Ms Harris and fellow media lawyer Mark Lewis of exchanging confidential information gained by acting for Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor in his civil damages claim over the hacking of his phone by the now-defunct News of the World.

Ms Harris strongly denied this suggestion, adding: "They were not keen on the fact that having done a phone hacking case, that we should continue to do phone hacking cases."

She questioned why NGN did not complain to her, her law firm or the Law Society if they had concerns about her conduct.

"To take out surveillance on me and my kids or family members, to find out which of my siblings I lived with in what year - that kind of information, I don't see how that can possibly help them," she said.

She also said that Tom Crone, the News of the World's former head of legal, was "absolutely wedded" to the defence that phone hacking at the News of the World was limited to a single "rogue reporter".

Clive Goodman, the paper'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.

Ms Harris said: "It was always Tom Crone's position that apart from in this case where there had been one rogue reporter, there was no evidence."

Meanwhile, a Guardian journalist today defended his hacking of an arms company executive's phone as "perfectly ethical".

David Leigh, the paper's investigations executive editor, admitted in an article published after Goodman pleaded guilty in December 2006 that he felt a "voyeuristic thrill" in listening to the voicemail messages.

He wrote: "I, too, once listened to the mobile phone messages of a corrupt arms company executive - the crime similar to that for which Goodman now faces the prospect of jail.

"The trick was a simple one: the businessman in question had inadvertently left his pin code on a print-out and all that was needed was to dial straight into his voicemail.

"There is certainly a voyeuristic thrill in hearing another person's private messages.

"But unlike Goodman, I was not interested in witless tittle-tattle about the royal family. I was looking for evidence of bribery and corruption.

"And unlike the News of the World, I was not paying a private detective to routinely help me with circulation-boosting snippets."

Giving evidence to the Leveson Inquiry today, Mr Leigh said: "I don't hack phones normally. I have never done anything like that since and I had never done anything like that before.

"On that particular occasion, this minor incident did seem to me perfectly ethical."

Mr Leigh said he would prefer it if there was an explicit public interest defence to the criminal offence of illegally intercepting communications.

But he suggested that the director of public prosecutions (DPP) would not in practice have brought charges against him.

He told the inquiry: "I like to think that if the incident I have described there came to the attentions of the DPP, and I was asked about it, the DPP would conclude that there was no public interest in seeking to prosecute me or another person for doing something like that.

"That is a backstop that the law has to stop it making an ass of itself."

Mr Leigh added: "A journalist ought to be prepared to face up to the consequences of what they have done.

"If I do something that I think is OK in the public interest, I have to be prepared to take the consequences."

The inquiry also heard today from Steven Nott, who said he tried to warn the authorities about phone hacking in 1999.

Mr Nott, a delivery driver from Cwmbran, South Wales, discovered how easy it was to access other people's voicemails remotely when he needed to pick up messages from customers while Vodafone's network was down.

He contacted the mobile phone company, who informed him he could pick up his voicemails by phoning his own mobile number and entering a default PIN number.

Mr Nott told the inquiry: "I thought to myself, 'this is insecure' straightaway.

"I then said to the lady at customer services, 'If this is the case, I could ring anybody's phone up using the same method and access their voicemail'.

"She said: 'Yes, you could, but you're not supposed to'."

Mr Nott said he told journalists at the Daily Mirror and The Sun about the security loophole, but they did not run stories.

He said he also contacted official agencies including Scotland Yard, MI5, the Home Office, the former Department of Trade and Industry, and the former HM Customs and Excise, but none of them replied.

[Douglas Caddy]

Phone hacking: Andy Coulson sues News of the World publisher

Lawyer says contract entitles former NoW editor and Tory spin chief to continue having his legal fees paid

By James Robinson

guardian.co.uk,

Wednesday 7 December 2011 10.00 EST

Andy Coulson has taken News of the World publisher News Group Newspapers to the high court in an attempt to force the company to continue paying his legal fees relating to the phone-hacking affair.

Coulson is suing News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers over the construction of a clause within the severance agreement entered into when he resigned as News of the World in January 2007.

His counsel, James Laddie, told Mr Justice Supperstone at the high court in London on Wednesday that Coulson's contract included an agreement to pay the cost of any "regulatory, administrative, judicial or quasi-judicial" legal action he might face. "What the parties were trying to do was cover all bases," he said.

Tom Mockridge, the chief executive of News International, NGN's owner, wrote to Coulson on 23 August to say it would no longer meet the cost of his legal fight.

Coulson, who resigned as David Cameron's communications chief at the start of the year, has been questioned by police over phone hacking and illegal payments to police, Laddie confirmed.

"I should make it clear at this stage that the claimant [Coulson] denies any allegations of wrongdoing," he said.

Laddie added that NGN's broad position was that, whatever the clause meant, it did not cover criminal allegations.

However, he argued that Coulson's contract of employment made it clear News International would pay the legal fees arising from cases brought against him as a result of his job as editor of the now defunct News of the World.

"It doesn't matter whether he performs his duties well or badly," Laddie said. "There's no need to refer to the duties of the employee at all. He has been questioned about his role in phone hacking and, as everybody knows, communications were intercepted for the purposes of obtaining material for publication, or for verifying material for publication. "The matters about which the claimant has been questioned are matters which fall within the scope of his employment."

Laddie told the high court that any legal action taken against Coulson arising from his role as editor triggered a legal indemnity NI is obliged to meet. "In any case where legal proceedings are even mooted there is an allegation of unlawful conduct," he said.

If it could be argued that certain categories of offences were not covered by the indemnity, Laddie added, "the indemnity would be robbed of all effect".

He added that NI had already admitted it is "vicariously liable" for the actions of Glenn Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, the former private investigator and ex-News of the World royal editor, and that it has paid phone-hacking victims compensation for their crimes.

Laddie said: "[Coulson]'s not being paid to break the law, of course not. An employee is employed to act lawfully.

"Of course there's an allegation of wrongdoing but it's obvious it's in both parties' interests to have the claimant have access to good legal advice … Any sins of Mr Coulson might also be visited upon the defendant."

It also emerged during Wednesday's hearing that NI is meeting any costs Coulson might incur arising out of the Leveson inquiry into press standards.

Christopher Jeans QC, for News International, said the clause in Coulson's contract was drafted to protect the former editor from paying legal costs relating to his duties as editor.

They included libel actions, appearances before parliamentary select committees or costs arising from being the subject of press complaints, he added.

"We submit that this is a clearly [constructed] clause and on no reading covers personal criminal wrongdoing," Jeans said. He added that the clause was intended to cover the "occupational hazards" of being an editor. "It plainly doesn't include criminal allegations directed against the editor personally."

Jeans said such a clause would compel the company to pay Coulson's legal fees if he had been convicted of expenses fraud or damaging company property.

"Where is the limit?" he asked. "It can't simply be that the conduct occurred whilst he was editor. It can't be the case that anything in the contract anticipated unlawful payments to police officers or interception of telephone conversations."

Jeans told the high court: "He himself does not [claim] that those things were part of his job. It was no part of his function to do the things of which he is accused.

"The indemnity only applies to the functions of editor. It was no part of Mr Coulson's functions to make unlawful payments to police officers or to intercept telephone conversations."

Asked by the judge whether News International itself could be liable for Coulson's actions should he be convicted of either crime, Jeans said: "There has certainly been no allegation against the employer. The editor is not a director of the company."

[Douglas Caddy]

Glenn Mulcaire arrested over phone hacking scandal

Daily Telegraph

By Mark Hughes, Crime Correspondent

2:56PM GMT 07 Dec 2011

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the News of the World, has been arrested by detectives investigating phone hacking at the former Sunday tabloid

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Weeting confirmed that a 41-year-old man was arrested at 7am on Wednesday morning and was questioned at a south London police station.

It is understood the man is Mr Mulcaire, a 41-year-old former professional footballer turned private investigator, who worked for the News of the World for about five years until 2006.

Police said he was held on suspicion of conspiracy to hack mobile phones and on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

The arrest is the 16th in Operation Weeting although it is the first time that anyone has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice in connection with the investigation.

Mr Mulcaire’s solicitor Sarah Webb refused to comment on his arrest.

Neighbours said they saw activity at Mr Mulcaire’s home in Sutton, south London, early yesterday [WED] morning.

A neighbour said: “I heard something going on this morning just after 7am.

“I looked out the window and there was a car parked outside his house, just a normal car, it wasn't marked.

“It didn't know if he had been arrested. I didn't see him being brought out of the house because I just glanced out the window when I heard the noise and then went back inside.”

Mr Mulcaire, who was paid more than £100,000 a year while working for the News of the World, is alleged to have accessed voicemails on behalf of the newspaper in order to gain stories on celebrities.

He is being sued by a number of high profile individuals for breach of privacy.

Mr Mulcaire’s arrest comes just days before his case for breach of contract against News International is due to commence.

He is suing the company in an attempt to make them pay his legal bills.

In July News International announced that it would stop paying Mr Mulcaire’s legal bills with immediate effect.

It emerged earlier this year that the company had paid "approximately £246,000" to lawyers acting for Mulcaire.

Mr Mulcaire claims that the company had a contractual obligation to pay the legal bills. The case is listed to appear in the High Court next week.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “On 7 December 2011 officers from Operation Weeting arrested a man, 41, in connection with phone hacking and perverting the course of justice

“It would be inappropriate to discuss any further details at this time.”

The phone hacking investigation was launched in January following a series of allegations about the extent of hacking at the Sunday tabloid. Police are currently sifting through 300 million emails given to them by News International.It has cost more than £3 million.

The scandal has seen the News of the World closed down and has caused the resignations of two of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers – former commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates, an ex assistant commissioner.

It also prompted the resignation of two former News of the World editors.

Andy Coulson, then the Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman, and Rebekah Brooks, the then News International chief executive, have stepped down and have both since been

[Douglas Caddy]

Rebekah Brooks? 'We helped choose her police station' says Bell Pottinger

By Oliver Duff

The Independent

Wednesday, 07 December 2011

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rebekah-brooks-we-helped-choose-her-police-station-says-bell-pottinger-6273278.html#

Bell Pottinger's senior executives described how they prepared the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks for her evidence to Parliament and also helped her to choose which police station she would like to be arrested at and questioned.

David Wilson, chairman of Bell Pottinger Public Relations, and Tim Collins, managing director of Bell Pottinger Public Affairs, also talked in less-than-

complimentary terms about News International's public relations strategy after the hacking scandal broke. Ms Brooks – who retained Bell Pottinger after her resignation this July, and who has denied any knowledge of hacking – is unlikely to be impressed by the firm's apparent readiness to mention its role in her PR strategy whilst pitching to possible clients.

Mr Collins told undercover reporters posing as possible clients that Bell Pottinger helped prepare Ms Brooks for giving evidence to MPs on the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee shortly after her arrest on suspicion of making corrupt payments to police and conspiring to intercept voicemails. "She spent all yesterday morning in the room opposite this corridor while we were very rude to her to prepare her for the select committee," said Mr Collins.

"We were four hours in a waiting room adjacent to the committee room waiting to go in. She was really upset actually, in tears when Rupert got attacked because he is her mentor.

"He's almost like a father figure to her. I know there are stories about her in the past, I didn't know her too well in the past, so I won't comment on whether she was ruthless or whatever, I must say I see a very honorable, honest woman who's trying to fight to clear her name at the moment."

Mr Collins said Bell Pottinger's advice had stretched to helping choose which police station she should be questioned at. "Dave was on the phone... 'No, that nick's not quite right, no no, that one's got a car park, no that one's down a tunnel', and I thought he was on to some very dodgy part of the criminal underworld but in fact it was his brother-in-law who's a police officer."

Mr Wilson said he had waited outside for her while she was questioned. "She's been very open and honest and said, 'I didn't know a thing, didn't know any of it'. She said that yesterday and to be honest I believe her. "

Mr Collins bemoaned News International's initial handling of the phone-hacking crisis from a PR perspective.

"Dave's the PR expert but the problem from our perspective is News International were making a lot of mistakes in the two weeks or so prior to [her resignation] and they've just started making fewer."

Ms Brooks could not be reached for comment yesterday.

[Douglas Caddy]

Brooks' links to Clifford payment cast doubt on her hacking denials

The Independent

By Cahal Milmo

Thursday, 08 December 2011

Rebekah Brooks personally negotiated a £680,000 out-of-court settlement with the publicity guru Max Clifford which led to his withdrawing a potentially explosive phone-hacking claim against the News of the World, News International (NI) revealed last night.

In a letter to MPs investigating the phone-hacking scandal, lawyers representing Rupert Murdoch's media empire laid responsibility for the settlement with Mr Clifford in 2010 at the door of Ms Brooks, saying she brokered a verbal deal with the PR expert which was not put before the NI board.

The package, which was not backed by a written document, included a two-year "retainer" of £200,000 to be paid to Mr Clifford and the payment of his legal costs of £283,000.

The agreement with Mr Clifford in February 2010 kept a lid on the hacking scandal by preventing the disclosure of evidence which threatened to blow away the NOTW's defence that voicemail interception was restricted to a single "rogue" reporter and knowledge of the practice had not reached executives.

Ms Brooks, who at the time of the settlement was NI's chief executive and had been editor of the NOTW until January 2003, has denied any knowledge of widespread phone hacking at the Sunday tabloid until December 2010, when internal documents relating to a civil-damages claim by the actress Sienna Miller led to the launch of a new Scotland Yard investigation into the scandal.

But written evidence released last night to the Commons Media Select Committee on behalf of NI's Management Standards Committee (MSC), the internal body responsible for investigating hacking at the company, suggests that Ms Brooks was aware of the substance of Mr Clifford's legal claim when she concluded their deal.

Shortly before the deal was struck, Mr Clifford's lawyers had obtained a court order requiring Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was jailed in 2007 for hacking the phones of eight royal aides and public figures including the PR guru, to name every individual at the NOTW who had instructed him to target Mr Clifford and every individual to whom he had in turn supplied hacked voicemail messages.

The letter, written on behalf of NI by the law firm Linklaters, notes that the effect of the deal was that the "commercial relationship" between the PR fixer and NI would recommence with the payment of £400,000 over two years.

Ms Brooks, who resigned as NI chief executive this summer after repeated expressions of confidence from Rupert Murdoch, was arrested in July on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemails and making corrupt payments to police officers. She has denied any wrongdoing.

Last night, the Labour MP Tom Watson, a member of the committee, said: "I am surprised that Ms Brooks did not reveal to the committee the settlement she reached with Max Clifford, particularly now that News International have admitted that she was solely responsible for this deal, having never taken it before the company's board."

In her own written response to the select committee, Ms Brooks said she was unable to comment on the deal with Mr Clifford because it impinged on police inquiries.

The High Court heard yesterday that when Andy Coulson resigned as editor of the NOTW in 2007 to be David Cameron's spin doctor, he believed that News International had promised to pick up any lawyers' bills if criminal proceedings were to be brought against him.

Mr Coulson, who was arrested in July in connection with phone-hacking and corruption allegations, is suing NI over its refusal to continue paying his legal fees relating to the phone-hacking scandal.

Mulcaire arrested again over message interceptions

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator for the News of the World who was jailed for phone hacking, was yesterday arrested in a dawn swoop on his home on suspicion of further voicemail interception offences and perverting the course of justice.

Mulcaire was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in 2007 after he admitted hacking the voicemails of royal aides and public figures, and was earlier this year linked to the interception of voicemails left for murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, which led to the closure of the Sunday tabloid.

Officers from Operation Weeting, Scotland Yard's investigation into phone hacking at the NOTW, detained Mr Mulcaire, 41, at his home in Sutton at about 7am and took him to a west London police station. He is the 18th person arrested by the Weeting team, which has also detained former NOTW editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks.

Although Mr Mulcaire, who was paid £105,000 a year by News International for "research and information", has served time for his targeting of eight individuals, police now believe up to 5,795 people were targeted in the NOTW's hacking operation.

Cahal Milmo

[Douglas Caddy]

New evidence shows tabloid spied on Murdoch critic

By DAVID STRINGER and CASSANDRA VINOGRAD

Associated Press

Dec 7, 5:54 PM EST

LONDON (AP) -- Newly disclosed evidence in Britain's tabloid phone hacking scandal confirmed Wednesday that an outspoken critic of Rupert Murdoch was put under surveillance by his now defunct tabloid the News of The World.

Lawmaker Tom Watson, who has led efforts to expose the extent of malpractice in Britain's newspaper industry, was followed for five days in 2009 by private investigator Derek Webb, a former police officer.

Law firm Linklaters, which represents the management and standards committee of Murdoch's News Corp., said in a letter sent to Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee - which is investigating phone hacking - that three employees of the tabloid were responsible for commissioning Webb to spy on the Labour Party legislator.

"We do not think it appropriate to name the individuals involved given the ongoing police investigations," Linklaters said in its letter.

Lawyer Mark Lewis, who was also spied on by the newspaper, had previously said that he had seen evidence that Watson, a former government minister, had been under surveillance.

The admission "is no longer surprising, though I am intrigued to know the names of the three executives who commissioned the covert surveillance," Watson told The Associated Press in a text message.

Linklaters also acknowledged that internal inquiries showed that the ex-chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, had authorized a settlement in 2010 with celebrity publicist Max Clifford over the hacking of his phone.

"Mrs. Brooks was authorized to conclude this agreement by virtue of her position as chief executive of News International. The MSC (News Corp. Management and Standards Committee) has seen no information to suggest that this agreement was discussed by the boards of News Group Newspapers, News International or News Corporation," the letter said.

Watson said that disclosure threw up more questions over the extent to which the tabloid's executives were aware of malpractice. "Was she aware that others were involved in wrongdoing and if so, why didn't she immediately act," he told the AP.

Brooks, a former News of The World editor, was arrested by police in July and later released on bail.

Parliament's culture committee had asked Linklaters whether all 11 of its members, including Watson, had been put under surveillance.

News Corp. had "no information yet to suggest that any other member of the committee (or their family or friends) was under surveillance," the law firm said in the letter, dated Dec. 1.

In another letter, Neville Thurlbeck, a former chief reporter at the News of The World - who was arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and later released - told the committee he had repeatedly offered executives what he says is evidence that several members of staff were aware of the use of hacking at the tabloid.

For many months, executives maintained that phone hacking was the work of a single rogue reporter. Thurlbeck insists that claim was false, and that he had urged two key executives to review his contradictory evidence to before they appeared before lawmakers and laid the blame on a lone employee.

"They were in possession of all this knowledge and they failed to disclose it to the committee," he wrote in his letter to the panel dated Nov. 29.

Only two people have been jailed for phone hacking, both in 2007 - News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator convicted over hacking into the voicemail messages of royal staff while working for the tabloid.

The release of the documents came as British police arrested an 18th suspect in their investigation, named by media including Sky News - which is 39 percent owned by Murdoch's News Corp. - as Mulcaire.

London's Metropolitan Police said a 41-year-old man was held Wednesday on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voice mail messages and pervert the course of justice. It declined to release the man's name.

Mulcaire's lawyer, Sarah Webb, declined to comment.

Police said later the man had been released on police bail until late March, pending further investigations. "It would be inappropriate to discuss any further details at this time," police said in a statement.

London police have identified 5,795 potential phone-hacking victims in material collected from Mulcaire, the private investigator at the center of the scandal. A British media practices inquiry has seen the names of at least 28 News International employees in notes kept by Mulcaire - and five journalists alone had asked Mulcaire to carry out 2,266 tasks.

More than a dozen News of the World journalists, including former editor Andy Coulson, have been arrested in the scandal. Two top London police officers and several senior Murdoch executives also have resigned in the scandal, which has led to multiple investigations and damaged Murdoch's global media empire.

Coulson, who resigned as Prime Minister David Cameron's media adviser in January when he became embroiled in the investigation, is suing News of the World's publisher for stopping the payment of his legal fees in the hacking case.

Coulson left the paper in 2007, but his lawyer James Laddie asked Justice Michael Alan Supperstone at London's High Court to rule that News Group Newspapers must pay Coulson's costs in defending himself from allegations of criminality during his tenure as editor.

Christopher Jeans, representing News Group Newspaper, argued that a clause in Coulson's severance agreement covers the "occupational hazards of being an editor" but "in no way covers personal criminal wrongdoing."

Supperstone will rule at a later date.

[Douglas Caddy]

James Murdoch: I did not authorise Max Clifford phone-hacking settlement

News Corp boss claims he did not sign off deal with publicist worth more than £650,000

By Dan Sabbagh and Lisa O'Carroll

guardian.co.uk,

Wednesday 7 December 2011

James Murdoch has written to MPs claiming that Rebekah Brooks reached a settlement with Max Clifford in 2010 over his phone hacking-claims against the News of the World without seeking authorisation with him or discussing its terms.

The settlement was worth £200,000 a year for two years, according to other evidence sent to parliament by lawyers working for News Corporation. Clifford also had his costs of £283,500 plus VAT paid.

James Murdoch's letter – sent to the culture, media and sport select committee – claims that "Mrs Brooks did mention agreement with Mr Clifford to me but did not seek any authorisation from me, nor did she discuss its terms with me."

Clifford, the public relations adviser, was one of a group of public figures that had his phone hacked into. The publicist subsequently brought a phone-hacking action against the newspaper.

Murdoch is executive chairman of News International, the UK company that owns News Corp's British newspapers, and used to own the now closed News of the World. His letter was released with a string of others last night by the culture, media and sport select committee.

Further detail is provided by Linklaters, lawyers to News Corporation's in house management and standards committee, which said there was no written agreement for the Clifford settlement, in a separate letter to the committee.

The arrangement was negotiated in February 2010 and contracted Clifford to "help with stories and would be paid a retainer of £200,000 per annum for two years," according to the Linklaters memo.

Linklaters note claims that News Corp's management and standards committee "understands that Mrs Brooks was authorised to conclude this agreement by virtue of her position as chief executive of News International."

According to Linklaters, News Corp's management and standards committee had also seen no information to suggest that the Clifford settlement was "discussed by the boards of News Group Newspapers, News International or News Corporation".

Colin Myler, the former editor of the News of the World, said that he had only a "limited" involvement in the Clifford settlement, in another letter sent to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, and published by that body last night.

But Myler said that he was present at one meeting in which Tom Crone, the News of the World's chief lawyer, and Julian Pike, who worked for News International's lawyers Farrer & Co, in which he claims that the two lawyers advised Brooks that "the amount she indicated she was prepared to offer Mr Clifford ... was more than they advised was necessary". Myler's letter does not state what sums of money were under discussion, nor does he recall the date of the meeting.

The former editor also said that payments to Clifford were to be "met from the News of the World's editorial budget" and from time to time that he would be "shown invoices" from the publicist that would be processed for payment.

However, Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, said she could not provide any further detail to the committee as to why she agreed to settle Clifford's claim.

She said that while she was "keen to co-operate as fully as possible with the committee" that could not do so because she was "still under investigation by the police" following her arrest on 17 July on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations contrary to section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.

Brooks said that "one of the matters being investigated" are the circumstances surrounding the Clifford settlement, and that she was "questioned by the police on this issue". She said that she could not respond further on the topic because to do so would "directly affect the fairness of the investigative process".

[Douglas Caddy]

Neville Thurlbeck: 'News of the World withheld hacking evidence'

NoW's former chief reporter has provided evidence accusing executives of 'withholding information' about phone-hacking

By Jason Deans and Lisa O'Carroll

The Guardian,

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Full text: read Thurlbeck's letter to MPs

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/08/neville-thurlbeck-phone-hacking-evidence

The News of the World's former chief reporter has provided written evidence to MPs accusing executives on the paper of "withholding information" about the extent of phone-hacking at the title from a parliamentary committee and other senior News International managers including James Murdoch.

Neville Thurlbeck claimed Colin Myler, the former News of the World editor, and Tom Crone, the former head of legal at the newspaper, had left him "to dangle as a suspect for the next two years" after he first told them in July 2009 that he had "final proof" that phone-hacking at the paper went beyond a single "rogue reporter".

The phone-hacking scandal eventually led to the decision by the paper's owners News International to close the title in July of this year.

News International had previously insisted that phone-hacking had only been carried out by royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who commissioned private detective Glenn Mulcaire to hack into voicemail messages. In 2006, they were both found guilty of phone hacking and were jailed the following year.

Thurlbeck said his name first became publicly linked to allegations of phone hacking in July 2009 in relation to a News International settlement with PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor. Taylor was paid £425,000 in damages over the interception of voicemail messages.

In a letter to the Commons select committee chairman, John Whittingdale MP, which was published online late last night, Thurlbeck wrote: "In my intimate experience of the fall-out from the phone hacking scandal, there has been a pattern of News of the World executives withholding information from News International executives and to the [culture, media and sport committee]."

He also wrote that because of what he claimed was a "backdrop of persistent non-disclosure", he cannot believe allegations by Myler and Crone that they told Murdoch in 2008 that phone-hacking at the News of the World went beyond a single reporter. Murdoch the News Corporation deputy chief operating officer and News International chairman denies that he was told this.

Thurlbeck said he could not believe that if Murdoch had been told that there was evidence of more widespread phone hacking that he would not have taken further action to find out what had been going on at the News of the World after deciding to pay Taylor damages a settlement that rose to more than £700,000 including legal costs in 2008.

"It is inconceivable to me that upon deciding to pay record damages for invasion of privacy based upon telephone hacking that he would not have discussed the implications for the company and shareholders with other members of the board, who would in turn have advised holding an internal inquiry. They didn't," he wrote.

Thurlbeck was arrested and bailed in April of this year for alleged phone hacking, and was sacked by News International in the summer. He denies hacking into phones.

In another letter to the culture select committee published late on Wednesday, Crone insisted he conveyed to Murdoch the damning legal opinion from the company's own barrister of "overwhelming evidence" that there was "a culture of illegal information access" in the newsroom.

He claims he provided Myler with a copy of the written opinion by Michael Silverleaf, QC on 3 June 2008, and that this was duly reported to Murdoch at another meeting on 10 June.

He admits he "cannot remember" whether he "handed a copy of counsel's opinion" or whether he and Myler "simply briefed him". But he is sure: "I certainly went to the meeting with a spare copy of the written opinion for Mr Murdoch and would have offered it to him.

"If he was not given the copy it was because he asked to be briefed rather than reading it himself."

Myler also stands by his previous claims that he and Crone did brief Murdoch about external legal advice to settle with Taylor.

"I do not know whether Mr Murdoch was given a copy of Mr Silverleaf's opinion. I did not give him a copy.

"However, Mr Crone and I briefed Mr Murdoch at the meeting on 10 June 2008 that Counsel's advice was to settle Mr Taylor's claim," he wrote to the culture select committee.

Myler says he did not read a copy of the Silverleaf opinion but was "briefed" on the substance of the advice which was to "settle Mr Taylor's claim".

Thurlbeck claims that a taped phone conversation with the News of the World journalist alleged to have made the transcript of the Taylor voicemail messages in the "for Neville" email exonerates him.

Edited December 8, 2011 by Douglas Caddy

[Douglas Caddy]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/interactive/2011/dec/07/news-corporation-letter-mps

[Douglas Caddy]

Leveson Inquiry: Journalists 'would have fought us'

The Independent

By Sam Marsden, Rosa Silverman

Friday 09 December 2011

The former information commissioner suggested today that it was a good thing his office did not prosecute journalists for illegally buying private information.

Richard Thomas told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that he feared newspapers would have fought the case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

He said he was advised that reporters alleged to have paid private investigators for personal data were well-prepared and like a "barrel of monkeys".

The inquiry has heard that the Information Commissioner's Office uncovered a "treasure trove" of evidence linking newspapers to the trade in personal information when it raided the home of private investigator Steve Whittamore in March 2003 as part of an inquiry called Operation Motorman.

Mr Thomas told the hearing today: "Maybe this is with hindsight, but perhaps thank goodness we did not prosecute the journalists.

"The impact for the office would have been very, very demanding indeed.

"I don't know when this was or at what point this was, but perhaps around about 2007, I can recall a conversation along the lines of somebody saying 'Thank God we didn't take the journalists to court, they would have gone all the way to Strasbourg'."

Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, questioned why the Information Commissioner's Office did not bring prosecutions against journalists who paid for criminal records or "family and friends" telephone numbers, which could only be obtained illegally.

Mr Thomas replied: "I can see that the media would not like any of their journalists being prosecuted, and I suspect they would for example argue there is a public interest in being able to ensure freedom of expression.

"Now I don't believe that, I don't accept that. It's one thing as to whether or not that would be successful, but one can anticipate that that sort of point would have been raised and would have bogged down the office for many years."

Mr Thomas, who was information commissioner from 2002 to 2009, said he expected his investigators to "get on with the job" and did not give them any instructions about whether to pursue newspapers.

"At no time throughout this situation did I think we were either going to be prosecuting journalists or not doing so," he said.

Mr Jay suggested that the failure to interview any journalists as part of Operation Motorman could only be put down to a policy decision or incompetence in the investigation team.

Mr Thomas replied: "If you want to put it in those terms, I have to put it to the latter.

"But I am absolutely clear, because I wouldn't have done any of the things I had done right through 2005, 2006, 2007 if I had thought at any time I or anybody else had said, 'back off the journalists'."

Mr Thomas alerted the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) in November 2003 to the involvement of reporters in the illicit trade in private data, the inquiry heard.

"I was told some time in October or November that it was going to be too expensive or too difficult to pursue the journalists. That's when I went off to the PCC," he said.

The inquiry heard that barrister Bernard Thorogood advised Mr Thomas in January 2005 that police - who were investigating Whittamore and his associates for alleged corruption over the trade in criminal records, vehicle registration and telephone company data - had found it difficult to get information out of reporters.

"The journalists were interviewed and were found to be tricky, well-armed and well briefed - effectively a 'barrel of monkeys'," minutes from the meeting noted.

Whittamore was convicted of illegally accessing data and received a conditional discharge at London's Blackfriars Crown Court in April 2005.

Mr Thomas said illegally obtaining personal records could be more serious than phone hacking.

He stressed that his office took breaches of section 55 of the Data Protection Act 1998, which covers the unlawful obtaining of personal information, "extremely seriously".

In a witness statement he said: "A section 55 offence is often at least as serious as phone hacking, and may be even more serious.

"Interception of a telephone call or message is widely and rightly seen as highly intrusive.

"But a great deal more information can usually be obtained about individuals by stealing their electronic or written records (such as financial, health, tax or criminal records) than from a conversation or message.

"And their entire daily activities can be available if email accounts or social network sites are illicitly accessed."

PA

[Douglas Caddy]

Reporter reveals undercover methods at NotW

Financial Times

By Ben Fenton

December 12, 2011

The chief reporter of the News of the World admitted on Monday that he had sent emails to prostitutes involved in one of the newspaper’s “kiss-and-tells” which threatened to identify them if they refused to give their stories, but claimed the messages were dictated by a senior executive.

Neville Thurlbeck agreed with the counsel for the Leveson inquiry that the emails were intended to intimidate the women into telling all about a “sex party” involving Max Mosley, the former Formula One chief, which had been splashed all over the now-defunct Sunday tabloid the previous week.

In the emails, Mr Thurlbeck offered the women the chance to have their faces pixelated in a series of pictures of Mr Mosley that were taken from stills in a video recorded by one of the five prostitutes on behalf of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper.

But to ensure anonymity, and a cash payment, they had to agree to tell their side of the story. If they did not, the emails implied, their faces would be clearly identifiable in pictures appearing in more than 3m copies of the News of the World the following week.

Giving evidence under oath, Mr Thurlbeck claimed that the content of the emails was spelt out for him by Ian Edmondson, the then news editor. He said the latter had been on holiday the previous week and had missed the glory of the Mosley scoop.

However, Mr Thurlbeck told the inquiry into press standards and ethics that he could have refused Mr Edmondson’s instructions and said he took full responsibility for the emails.

Earlier, he and Mazher Mahmood, the investigations editor of the News of the World, had both told the inquiry that they believed that acting in the public interest was the paramount concern for stories that they wrote. Mr Thurlbeck said he had written a kiss-and-tell story about an alleged affair between David Beckham and an actress called Rebecca Loos because the footballer and his wife Victoria commercially exploited their wholesome family image.

Mr Mahmood said he believed all his stories, many of which were obtained by dressing up as the so-called “fake sheikh” to record people off their guard incriminating themselves in criminal activities, had been in the public interest and involved “criminal or moral wrongdoing or hypocrisy”.

The Leveson inquiry was set up by David Cameron to look into press standards after last July’s scandalous revelation that the News of the World had hacked the phone of Milly Dowler, the murdered Surrey schoolgirl, in 2002.

Some uncertainty was cast at the weekend over the details of that event when The Guardian, which broke the story in July, reported that police now believed that the most inflammatory of the News of the World’s alleged actions were probably not its responsibility.

The newspaper quoted the police as saying that the deletion of voicemails on Milly’s phone probably occurred as the inadvertent result of Surrey police listening to her messages as they tried to find her. Because of an automatic system, this led to messages being deleted and gave her parents false hope that she was alive and picking up her voicemail.

Mr Mahmood said he was not aware of phone hacking until after the arrest of Clive Goodman, the paper’s royal editor, in 2006.

Asked if any names were mentioned at the time, he told the inquiry: “I didn’t hear any names, but the fingers were all pointing at the newsdesk.”

Lawyers for Tessa Jowell announced on Monday that the former culture secretary and Labour’s spokesman on the Olympics had settled a phone hacking claim with the News of the World’s parent company for £200,000 plus undisclosed costs.

Ms Jowell, who was told her mobile phone had been hacked on multiple occasions when her husband was facing charges of corruption in connection with his role as a lawyer for Silvio Berlusconi, stipulated that half the damages be paid to a charity in her south London constituency. She will also receive all the documentation from her case and will remain one of the core participant witnesses at the Leveson inquiry.

[Douglas Caddy]

Met police chief's rediscovered diaries reveal meals with NoW executives

Lord Stevens' diaries catalogue dinners at the Ivy with Rebekah Brooks and meetings with Andy Coulson

Press Association

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 12 December 2011 10.05 EST

The Metropolitan police commissioner and the editor of the News of the World dined together at the Ivy while murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was missing, official diaries show.

Lord Stevens met various senior executives from national media while he was Britain's top police officer between 2000 and 2005, according to his once-lost diaries.

The meetings included three dinners with former NoW and Sun editor Rebekah Brooks at the Ivy, a favourite haunt of celebrities in central London, the diaries, which were released on Monday to the Press Association following a request under the Freedom of Information Act, show.

These included a three-hour dinner on 28 August 2002, months after Milly disappeared in March and before her body was found on 18 September.

Brooks resigned as News International chief executive on 15 July this year saying she was "appalled and shocked" that Milly's phone was hacked.

Two days later Scotland Yard detectives arrested her on suspicion of phone hacking and corruption. She is currently on police bail. Her lawyer has said she denies committing any criminal offence.

In October News International confirmed it was paying the Dowler family £2m in settlement of their civil claim over the illegal interception of Milly's voicemail messages by a private investigator working for NoW.

Rupert Murdoch also donated £1m to charities chosen by the schoolgirl's family to underscore his regret.

But over the weekend the Dowler family's solicitor Mark Lewis said that, despite initial reports, police now suspect that the NoW was not responsible for deleting messages on Milly's phone and giving the family false hope that she was alive.

Instead, Milly's phone would automatically delete messages 72 hours after being listened to, and some messages had been deleted before the NoW began hacking into her voicemail.

The former commissioner's diary showed Brooks, under her maiden name of Rebekah Wade, met with Lord Stevens on at least six occasions between 2000 and 2005, including three dinners at the Ivy in August 2002, June 2003 and December 2004.

Other meetings described lunch or dinner with "News of the World", without naming the individuals invited.

Lord Stevens also dined with both Brooks and former News International executive chairman Les Hinton, the most senior figure to resign over the hacking scandal so far, seven days after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.

The dinner was held in the force's headquarters at New Scotland Yard.

In September 2004 Hinton, along with "other editors (Sun, NofW etc)", dined with Lord Stevens at News International's headquarters in Wapping, east London.

A close Murdoch lieutenant who had worked with the News Corp chief for more than 50 years, Hinton quit as CEO of the company's Dow Jones subsidiary in July as the scale of hacking which took place under his watch at the NoW became apparent.

Lord Stevens said in his autobiography that he worked hard to foster good relations with newspapers, making himself "available" to editors.

Lord Stevens also met former NoW editor Andy Coulson on at least five occasions, including for lunch at Shepherd's in the heart of Westminster and dinner at Cipriani London in Mayfair.

These occurred in August 2000, March 2001, February 2003, November 2004 and January 2005, the diaries showed.

Neil Wallis, NoW's former executive editor, who was arrested in July by the Metropolitan police's phone-hacking investigation team, was also present on this last occasion at Cipriani London.

Coulson, who was also arrested in July over the allegations and released on bail, resigned as David Cameron's director of communications in January, saying that coverage of the scandal was making it too difficult for him to do his job.

Stuart Kuttner, the former NoW managing editor who was arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and inappropriate payments to police in August and later released on bail, also met Lord Stevens on at least two occasions in March 2001 and November 2004.

Lord Stevens also dined with a series of other media executives during his time in office, including Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, the Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, and former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan.

Other executives whom he met included representatives of the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Independent, the Daily Express, the Financial Times, the Observer, the London Evening Standard, the BBC, ITN and Sky News.

Lord Stevens' diaries, which had been lost, were found after a "thorough investigation" was ordered by the current commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, earlier this year.

Lord Stevens used a paper-based diary from 1 January 2000 to 9 August 2001, but then used both a paper diary and Microsoft Outlook after this date, the response to the FOI request showed.

Mark Lewis, the Dowler family's lawyer, said the "revelation shows the level and type of contact between the police and News International".

He added: "It might be that nothing untoward was discussed but the lack of openness causes suspicion. Policing should be open."

[Douglas Caddy]

New inquiry into Milly Dowler hacking launchedJudge signals that fresh statements will be taken from police about latest developments

By David Leigh

guardian.co.uk,

Monday 12 December 2011 12.44 EST

The Leveson inquiry into press behaviour has launched its own investigation on Monday in an attempt, in Lord Justice Leveson's words, to "get to the bottom of" fresh evidence about the News of the World's hacking of Milly Dowler's voicemail.

The judge signalled that new statements would be taken from two police forces, Surrey and the Metropolitan police, about the question of the hacking and deletion of the murdered girl's voicemail messages.

This followed confirmation from counsel for the Met that it was now considered "unlikely" that the private detective Glenn Mulcaire, who had been commissioned to hack Milly's phone by the Sunday tabloid, had also been responsible for deleting her voicemail messages. Neil Garnham QC confirmed to a public session of the Leveson inquiry that Mulcaire had not been tasked by the NoW to hack Milly's phone until "some time after" the mystery deletion of voicemail messages from the 13-year-old girl's One-2-One mobile phone. As a result, he said, it was "unlikely" that Mulcaire was to blame for the deletions.

It was, however, conceivable, although also unlikely, that other NoW journalists had carried out the deletions.

He said the phone company's standard system was to delete messages 72 hours after being listened to, and that Milly had accessed her own phone "approximately 72 hours" before the Dowlers discovered the emptying of her voicemail box, giving them false hope that she was alive.

The Scotland Yard version was challenged by David Sherborne, representing the Dowlers. He pointed out that every single voicemail had been apparently deleted at once on 24 March 2002. This could not have been the result of automatic deletions of each message after 72 hours, he said, because the Dowlers had left a series of anxious messages on the phone in preceding days. Sherborne said someone else must have been accessing and deleting messages between 21 and 24 March. He pointed the finger at "a journalist at the NoW" who was also in possession of Milly's phone number and pin number: "The Surrey police know the identity of the journalist," he alleged.

Leveson said: "This information is of significance." The public would want to know the upshot of the fresh allegations, he said, and therefore he would be unable to leave the issue until part two of the inquiry, which was due to deal with phone-hacking allegations following the conclusion of any court cases.

He needed to "get to the bottom of what is likely to have happened" and could not "leave it hanging in the air indefinitely". Garnham denied that it was Scotland Yard officers who had initially blamed the NoW for the deletions. The Dowlers' lawyer, Mark Lewis, has publicly stated that the allegation about the NoW deletions first came via the Met.

Leveson told the inquiry he might have to go back to Surrey police, the original Dowler investigators, and ask them to submit evidence on the issue.

Garnham told the inquiry that it had now been discovered that the voicemail deletion occurred on 24 March 2002, the day the Dowlers visited the former Birds Eye office block in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, where there had been CCTV footage of their daughter.

"The MPS have been investigating the suggestion that Mr Mulcaire deleted voicemail messages on Milly Dowler's phone," said Garnham. "Although their investigations are not yet complete, they are presently able to say this.

"First, the visit by the Dowlers to the Birds Eye building occurred on 24 March 2002. Second, Mr Mulcaire was not tasked in relation to the Dowlers until some time after that date. Third, and accordingly, it's unlikely that anything Mr Mulcaire did was responsible for what Mrs Dowler heard when she called Milly's phone during that visit.

"It is not yet possible to provide a comprehensive explanation for the fact that on that occasion the automated 'mailbox full' message was not heard. It is conceivable that other News International journalists deleted the voicemail, but the MPS [Metropolitan police service] have no evidence to support that proposition and current inquiries suggest that it is unlikely. The most likely explanation is that existing messages automatically dropped off from the mailbox after 72 hours. The relevant phone network provider has confirmed that this was a standard automatic function of that voicemail box system at the time. There were approximately 72 hours between Milly's disappearance and the visits to the Birds Eye building

[Douglas Caddy]

James Murdoch: I didn't read crucial phone-hacking email

News International boss was sent email in 2008 showing practice went beyond rogue reporter

By Dan Sabbagh and Mark Sweney

guardian.co.uk,

Tuesday 13 December 2011 16.50 EST

Fresh questions about the extent of James Murdoch's knowledge of the phone-hacking scandal were raised on Tuesday when it emerged he received an email that included a briefing indicating that the activity had not been confined to a single "rogue reporter".

News International's executive chairman wrote to MPs to say he had not properly read the June 7 2008 mail from News of the World editor Colin Myler which forwarded an account of the case being brought against the paper by the Professional Footballers' Association boss Gordon Taylor

The email chain appears to contradict Murdoch's insistence that he was not briefed in detail on the case which was later settled for more than £700,000.

The forwarded note from the paper's legal manager Tom Crone warned of a "nightmare scenario" because Taylor had obtained firm evidence of the hacking of one of his colleague's phones which involved at least one other News of the World journalist.

Myler's email also contained a second warning, from another lawyer retained by the News of the World, which added that Taylor's legal team wanted to demonstrate that phone hacking was "rife" throughout News International, the British parent company of the red top title.

Murdoch replied to the revealing email within three minutes of it being sent to him – but insisted – on the day the email chain was made public by the culture and media committee for the first time – that he had only read the top of the email, not the email chain below.

Writing to MPs, Murdoch said: "I am confident that I did not review the full email chain at the time or afterwards," in part because Myler's note had been sent to him at the weekend.

Crone's forwarded note places pressure on Murdoch's account of his handling of the hacking affair because it refers to the email which became known as the "For Neville" mail, a key piece of evidence that showed hacking extended beyond a single rogue reporter.

Murdoch has always insisted he was not told about the existence of the "For Neville" email.

Crone and Myler have repeatedly told MPs that they briefed Murdoch about the email – referred to in the newly-released emails as "the Ross Hindley email" in reference to the reporter who had transcribed hacked voicemails allegedly intended for the paper's chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck.

Three days after Myler sent the note that Murdoch says he did not read in full, the News Corp boss met the editor and Crone on 10 June 2008 to agree to settle the case in secret. News Corp, however, continued to maintain publicly that hacking was confined to a single "rogue reporter" until the end of 2010.

That "rogue reporter" was Clive Goodman who was jailed in 2007, for his part in hacking into phones belonging to officials working for Prince William and Prince Harry. Accounts of the 10 June meeting have been disputed for several months, with Murdoch telling parliament in July and November that he did not see the "For Neville" email, nor did he understand its significance.

Myler and Crone have repeatedly disputed Murdoch's account, saying the "For Neville" email was the sole reason for settling the case. The Murdoch disclosure came on the same day that Crone told the Leveson inquiry into press standards that he had always suspected phone hacking at the paper went beyond a single journalist, saying that he believed that the "rogue reporter" line was "erroneous from the outset".

Elsewhere, in the high court, a lawyer acting for Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was jailed for hacking phones for the News of the World, said his client had told Crone in 2007 that he was also instructed by another journalist, Ian Edmondson, the title's former news editor, to intercept voicemail messages.

The email chain forwarded to Murdoch by Myler also includes a note from Julian Pike, News International's external legal adviser at the firm Farrer's dated 6 June 2008. Pike says that Taylor's lawyer, Mark Lewis, has told him that he wants to demonstrate that hacking "is/was rife throughout the organisation" and he wants to "correct" the News International line that Goodman was a "rogue trader".

Crone commented on that note from Pike a day later, suggesting to Myler that "the best course of action" is to make a settlement offer to Taylor which would "amount to £700k [thousand]".

The two emails, were in turn, forwarded by Myler to Murdoch at 2.31pm on 7 June 2008, a Saturday. In a short email the then News of the World editor concludes that the status of phone-hacking case "is as bad as we feared". Myler asks for a meeting with his superior on Tuesday to discuss.

Murdoch acknowledged Myler's email almost immediately, responding at 2.34pm. "No worries," it began. "I am in during the afternoon. If you want to talk before I'll be home tonight after seven and most of the day tomorrow."

The email correspondence has come to light after it was unearthed by News Corp's in-house management and standards committee this month, which is working with the police and other outside bodies investigating claims of phone hacking against the News of the World. Linklaters, the law firm to the committee, passed the email chain to both Murdoch himself and the culture media and sport select committee.

Murdoch was first asked about the "For Neville" email when he appeared before MPs on the culture media and sport select committee with his father on 19 July of this year. He was asked by Tom Watson : "When you signed off the Taylor payment, did you see or were you made aware of the 'For Neville' email, the transcript of the hacked voicemail messages?" and replied: "No, I was not aware of that at the time."

In September, Myler and Crone, appearing together before the same group of MPs, said they had told Murdoch about the "For Neville email" in 2008. Murdoch was subsequently recalled by the MPs and insisted he had not been made aware that there was any evidence that hacking was more widespread than a single reporter.

In a statement, Murdoch said: "I was sent the email [from Colin Myler] on a Saturday when I was not in the office. I replied two minutes later accepting a meeting and did not read the full email chain. As I have always said, I was not aware of evidence of widespread wrongdoing or the need for further investigation."

[Douglas Caddy]

James Murdoch was told in email phone hacking was 'rife'

Daily Telegraph

4:57PM GMT 13 Dec 2011

Recently discovered emails show that News International boss James Murdoch was sent details in 2008 of claims that phone-hacking was ''rife'' at the News of the World.

But Mr Murdoch told the House of Commons Culture Committee, which is investigating the phone hacking scandal, that he did not read the email exchange forwarded to him by the paper's then editor Colin Myler.

In an email dated Saturday June 7 2008, Mr Myler requested a meeting with Mr Murdoch to discuss the case being brought against the paper by Professional Footballers Association chief executive Gordon Taylor over claims reporters had eavesdropped on his messages.

The News of the World editor warned Mr Murdoch: ''Unfortunately, it is as bad as we feared.''

Attached to his message was a "chain" of emails detailing discussions between News International's legal adviser Julian Pike of Farrer & Co and Mark Lewis, who represented Mr Taylor.

Mr Murdoch and Mr Myler met three days later on June 10, along with Tom Crone, legal manager for the NotW's publishers News Group Newspapers. Mr Myler and Mr Crone say that they told Murdoch at that meeting about the discovery of the notorious "For Neville" email, which proved that phone-hacking was not limited to a single "rogue reporter" on the paper as the company had claimed.

But Mr Murdoch insists that the meeting was simply to authorise an increased settlement offer to Mr Taylor and that he was not shown the email or told that it proved that wrong-doing was more widespread than previously thought.

The email exchange released today shows that Mr Pike wrote to Mr Crone on June 6, following his meeting with Mr Lewis.

Mr Pike said that Lewis had told him Taylor "wishes to be 'vindicated or made rich'. He wishes to see NGN suffer. He wants to demonstrate that what happened to him is/was rife throughout the organisation. He wants to correct the paper telling parliamentary inquiries that this was not happening when it was."

The solicitor noted that Mr Taylor was referring to NGN's position that Clive Goodman - the royal correspondent jailed in 2007 for intercepting messages - was a "rogue trader" acting alone with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

NGN had already offered Mr Taylor a £350,000 settlement, but he was demanding "seven figures plus indemnity costs", which could run to £1.2 million, said Mr Pike, who told Crone he would meet Mr Mulcaire to try to prepare a defence.

Mr Crone forwarded the message to Myler, making clear that details of the hacked emails were contained in what he refers to as "the Ross Hindley email" - believed to be the message entitled "For Neville" obtained by Mr Taylor.

Mr Crone voiced his concern about a "nightmare scenario" in which the PFA's in-house lawyer Joanne Armstrong may be able to sue because voicemails were also taken from her phone.

"There is a further nightmare scenario in this, which is that several of those voicemails on the Ross Hindley email were taken from Joanne Armstrong's phone. We can also assume that she will have seen this evidence and is waiting to see how Taylor's case concludes before intimating her own claim," he wrote.

He said he expected the company to enter a defence that while it "knew of and made use of the voicemail information Mulcaire acquired between Feb(ruary) and July 2005" - the period of the hacking which led to Goodman's conviction - it did not know whether "any of its employees... acted in concert with" him over the following year.

Mr Crone also refers to a tape obtained by Mr Taylor, which the PFA boss alleges records Mulcaire informing someone called Ryan about how to get into his voicemail. But the NGN legal manager says that Mulcaire appears to address the person as "Rial", which "can only be helpful" to the paper's case as it has never had a reporter of that name.

Passing the email exchange on to Mr Murdoch in an email with the heading "Strictly Private and Confidential and subject to legal professional privilege", Mr Myler wrote: "Update on the Gordon Taylor (Professional Football Association) case. Unfortunately it is as bad as we feared.

"The note from Julian Pike at Farrer's is extremely telling regarding Taylor's vindictiveness. It would be helpful if Tom Crone and I could have five minutes with you on Tuesday."

In a response timed just two minutes later, Mr Murdoch said: "No worries. I am in during the afternoon. If you want to talk before, I'll be home tonight after seven and most of the day tomorrow."

In a letter to the Culture Committee yesterday, Mr Murdoch said that he had forgotten about the email exchange until he was reminded of it on December 7 by the Management and Standards Committee set up by NI's owners News Corp to look into the hacking affair.

Mr Murdoch told the Commons committee that he was "confident" that he did not review the chain of emails before or after agreeing to meet Mr Myler and did not have a phone conversation with the NotW editor that weekend.

"Having agreed to meet the following Tuesday, I would have relied on the oral briefing on 10 June 2008 that I have previously described in my testimony before the committee," he wrote.

In a statement released later, Mr Murdoch said: "I was sent the email on a Saturday when I was not in the office. I replied two minutes later accepting a meeting and did not read the full email chain.

"As I have always said, I was not aware of evidence of widespread wrongdoing or the need for further investigation