Tag Archives: phone hacking

Phone Hacking Trial: Palace phone directories found at home of NOTW royal editor, trial hears – Martin Hickman

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It is absolutely extraordinary that the Met police should withhold for SIX years from the Royal Household that they had found highly sensitive directories giving the private telephone numbers of the Royal Family at NoTW Royal editor Clive Goodman’s home. It shows in the early stages the Met Police seemed reluctant to investigate the phone hacking scandal.

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Clive GoodmanDay 27:  Police did not tell a senior member of the Royal Household that a large number of Buckingham Palace phone directories had been found at the home of the News of the World’s royal editor for six years, the hacking trial heard yesterday.

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Glenn Mulcaire’s £1m payments from the News International

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A fascinating memo has been released at the hacking trial this week and published on the great blog by freelance journalist PeterJukes.
Written by Tom Crone one of News International’s former trusted lawyers and sent to Andy Coulson, then editor of the paper, it details information apparently obtained by Rebekah Brooks from the police on the progress of the police investigation into the later convicted hackers,ex Royal correspondent Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
It correctly predicts that the police are likely to ” bang to rights ” both of them. But interestingly it reveals that the police recovered invoices and payments totalling ” over a £1m” to Glenn Mulcaire revealing what a successful career the hacker had with the organisation over many,many years.
Ironically the cost of his work and others as Exaro News revealed before the trial has been secretly estimated by former News International chief executive as up to £1 billion in compensation to hacked victims,legal fees and support for suspended staff.
You can read the memo in full on Peter Jukes ‘s website plus two memos from Andy Coulson to his staff seeking new stories.
It is interesting to see how well-informed Rebekah Brooks was about the state of the investigation and what the police would later find out. A ” must read” I would say.

Phone Hacking Trial: Brooks told witness it was easy to hack phones of the famous, court hears – Martin Hickman

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Rebekah Brooks appears to be amazed how easy it is hack phones of the famous because they don’t have pin codes – but then why should they because they wouldn’t anticipate that their phones would be hacked.
Also note at the end of this report Rebekah’s unexplained request for a discreet meeting with her former lover Andy Coulson in 2011 just before he quit as David Cameron’s director of communications. The reference to not meeting at the Goring Hotel gives a great insight- it is a favourite with lobbyists, right wing journalists and some senior civil servants. They would be spotted.

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Eimear CookDay 21 (Part 2): Rebekah Brooks told the wife of a professional golfer how easy it was to hack the phones of famous people, the Old Bailey was told today.  Eimear Cook said that Mrs Brooks had warned her of the ease with which voicemails could be eavesdropped over lunch at the house of mutual friends.

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Transcript of the Goodman’s call to Coulson after being charged with Phone Hacking in 2006

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Read in full by clicking the link on Peter Jukes site the secretly taped conversation between Andy Coulson and hacker Clive Goodman two months before Goodman was jailed. The link is RSS 305 at the bottom of his post. It shows his concerns that at this stage the hacking investigation could easily be widened because of what the police have got from Glenn Mulcaire and a rather animated conversation on whether phone calls can be traced.

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Linked below is a transcript of the tape, played today in court today , between News of the World’s Royal Reporter Clive Goodman, and his editor Andy Coulson, around the 6th of November 2006.  Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. had been arrested in August and charged with hacking the voicemails of Royal aides a few weeks previously. They would both plead guilty at the end of  November 2006, and were sentenced in January 2007. Coulson resigned from his editorship of News of the World the same day

NB: Tom probably refers to Tom Crone, in house News International lawyer: Henri is Goodman’s solictior, and  Kelsey the barrister instructed by him. 

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Phone Hacking Trial: Coulson offered Goodman “every possible support” after arrest – Martin Hickman

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This secretly taped call between Andy Coulson and Clive Goodman – later to be jailed for phone hacking – reveals Coulson was prepared to back him to the end. It also reveals that as early as 2006 the NotW should have realised the game would be up because the Met police had extensive evidence of phone hacking from investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s files.

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Andy CoulsonDay 21 (Part 1):  Andy Coulson offered Clive Goodman “every possible support” after he was arrested for hacking into the voicemails of aides to the Royal family, the phone hacking trial heard today. Mr Coulson, then News of the World editor sympathised with Mr Goodman in  phone call on 8 November 2006. The call was  secretly taped by Mr Goodman.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Rebekah Brooks assured PCC “any journalist who breaks the law” was liable to summary dismissal – Martin Hickman

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Theses assurances were given to the Press Complaints Commission personally by Rebekah Brooks who tells them that anybody breaking the law at News International faces the sack. She is now accused at the Old Bailey of authorising illegal payments of £40,000. I am saying nothing!

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Day 19 (Part 2):  Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers “placed great emphasis” on the code of practice for journalists, Rebekah Brooks told the Press Complaints Commission two years before she was arrested for suspected phone hacking and corruption.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Reporter warned NoW management they would “all end up in jail” if payments to sensitive sources were traced – Martin Hickman

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A really damning comment from the News of the World’s former Royal Editor about payments by the paper released in a memo to the court.

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Clive-GoodmanDay 19:  A News of the World reporter warned the paper’s management that he and its editors could go to jail if police traced cash payments to sensitive sources, the hacking trial heard today.  Clive Goodman, the paper’s royal editor, made the warning about two of the cash contacts who were “in uniform.”

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Phone Hacking Trial: Ian Edmondson halted payments to Glenn Mulcaire a year before he was arrested, Old Bailey hears – Martin Hickman

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This story reveals that Ian Edmondson, the News of the World news editor,accused alongside Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, of conspiring to hack phone messages, moved to cancel a £2,000 a week retainer to phone hacker, Glenn Mulcaire, as part of a cost saving exercise. The decision was taken 18 months before Mulcaire was arrested. An intervention by his defence lawyer makes it clear that he will be highlighting his attempts to sack Mulcaire to defend himself against the charges.

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????????????????Day 18: News of the World news editor Ian Edmondson halted payments to the paper’s phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire a year before he was arrested, the hacking trial heard today. Mr Edmondson is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of conspiring with Mulcaire and other former colleagues to intercept voicemail messages between 2000 and 2006.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Murdoch executive packed up phone hacking suspect’s belongings on day of his arrest, court hears – Martin Hickman

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This extraordinary story of a successful attempt to remove evidence from the News of the World’s office after James Weatherup, a news editor, who has already pleaded guilty of plotting phone hacking was arrested. No wonder the judge asked the witness,Frances Carmen, a former newsdesk secretary, to repeat the claims. Another story of an alleged cover up in the Murdoch empire

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James WeatherupDay 17:  One of Rupert Murdoch’s senior executives packed up the belongings of a News of the World reporter suspected of phone hacking and sent them away from the newspaper’s offices in a taxi, the Old Bailey heard today. Paul Nicholas, Deputy Managing Editor of the News of the World, acted on the day in April 2011 that former news editor James Weatherup was arrested at his home in Essex, Frances Carmen, the paper’s newsdesk secretary, told the jury.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Sun lawyer: “possible” that he gave advice to journalists on phone hacking, Old Bailey hears – Martin Hickman

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Lawyers are now under pressure at the Hacking Trial. Sun lawyer Justin Walford is pleading that he can’t remember whether he gave advice on phone hacking – rather like evidence given by the Murdochs to Parliament. But then he admits it is possible he did. As a former journo at the Guardian I know lawyers crawl over all copy before it is published, so his answers are at the very least rather interesting.

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Brooks arriving at Old BaileyDay 16:  A senior lawyer today said today that it was “possible” he had given advice to Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group on phone hacking. Justin Walford, editorial legal counsel at News UK, who was being asked for a second time whether he had done so, went on to say: “I cannot remember.”

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