LONDON – Former News of the Worldeditor Andy Coulson yesterday faced fresh questions over his role in Britain's phone-hacking scandal after MPs released a letter written by former royal reporter Clive Goodman claiming the practice was "widely discussed" at the newspaper.
Goodman’s letter, published by the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, suggests that the issue of hacking frequently came up at the paper’s editorial meetings until Mr Coulson banned any further mention of the subject.
Despite resigning as the paper’s editor in 2007, Mr Coulson has consistently maintained he had been unaware of the practice, claiming it was confined to one “rogue” reporter — former royal editor Clive Goodman.
Labour MP Tom Watson described the latest claims as “devastating” and said they suggested previous evidence given by Mr Coulson to the committee was “at best misleading and probably deceptive”.
The disclosure is also potentially highly embarrassing for British prime minister David Cameron, who made Mr Coulson his director of communications after he quit the News of the World.
The prime minister has said he would make a “profound apology” if it turned out that Mr Coulson had lied to him about his involvement when he gave him the job.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the latest evidence showed what a “catastrophic” judgment it had been for Mr Cameron to take Mr Coulson with him into Downing Street. Mr Coulson subsequently left No 10 last January. In further developments, Culture, Media and Sport Committee chairman John Whittingdale indicated they would probably recall James Murdoch after his evidence to the committee was challenged by two former executives at the paper.
Former legal manager Tom Crone and Mr Coulson’s successor as editor, Colin Myler, will now appear before the committee on September 6th with other senior figures from the organisation.
The latest documents released by the committee include a letter written by Mr Goodman in March 2007 appealing against his dismissal after he was convicted and jailed for hacking the phones of royal aides along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
In a separate submission to the committee, James Murdoch, the deputy chief executive of News Corp, disclosed payments worth £243,502 had been made to Mr Goodman in relation to his claim of unfair dismissal. He said he had been informed that approximately £246,000 had been paid to Mr Mulcaire’s lawyers.
Mr Goodman's letter was included in a bundle of documents submitted by solicitors Harbottle and Lewis which carried out a review of internal News of the Worldemails in relation to Mr Goodman's wrongful dismissal claim.
In a letter to the committee, the firm strongly criticised James Murdoch and his father, Rupert, for relying on their report to support their contention that phone-hacking at the paper had been the work of one “rogue” reporter.
“There was absolutely no question of the firm being asked to provide News International with a clean bill of health which it could deploy years later in wholly different contexts for wholly different purposes,” it said. – (PA)
A 'perverse' decision to terminate employment: Clive Goodman's letter to News International
This is the text of Clive Goodman’s letter to Daniel Cloke, group human resources director of News International
Dear Mr Cloke, Re: Notice of termination of employment, I refer to Les Hinton’s letter of February 5, 2007, informing me of my dismissal for alleged gross misconduct. The letter identifies the reason for the dismissal as “recent events”. I take this to mean my plea of guilty to conspiracy to intercept the voicemail messages of three employees of the royal family.
I am appealing against this decision on the following grounds: i) The decision is perverse in that the actions leading to this criminal charge were carried out with the full knowledge and support of [blanked out]. Payment for Glen Mulcaire’s services was arranged by [blanked out].
ii) The decision is inconsistent, because [blanked out] and other members of staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures. The prosecution counsel, the counsel for Glen Mulcaire, and the judge at the sentencing hearing agreed that other News of the Worldemployees were the clients for Mulcaire's five solo substantive charges. This practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the Editor.
As far as I am aware, no other member of staff has faced disciplinary action, much less dismissal.
iii) My conviction and imprisonment cannot be the real reason for my dismissal.
The legal manager, Tom Crone, attended virtually every meeting of my legal team and was given full access to the Crown Prosecution Service’s evidence files. He, and other senior staff of the paper, had long advance knowledge that I would plead guilty. Despite this, the paper continued to employ me. Throughout my suspension, I was given book serialisations to write and was consulted on several occasions about royal stories they needed to check. The paper continued to employ me for a substantial part of my custodial sentence.
iv) Tom Crone and the editor promised on many occasions that I could come back to a job at the newspaper if I did not implicate the paper or any of its staff in my mitigation plea. I did not, and I expect the paper to honour its promise to me.
v) The dismissal is automatically unfair as the company failed to go through the minimum required statutory dismissal procedures.
Yours sincerely, Clive Goodman cc Stuart Kuttner, managing editor, News of the World; Les Hinton, executive chairman, News International Ltd