A former News International lawyer has challenged testimony provided by James and Rupert Murdoch to the British inquiry investigating the News of the World phone hacking scandal.
Overnight former NotW legal manager Tom Crone told the parliamentary inquiry that head of News International James Murdoch was aware of a 2008 email that showed phone hacking at the newspaper was more widespread than the company had previously claimed.
The “for Neville” email, which has cast much doubt over Murdoch’s testimony, is alleged to contain hacked information about Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor.
It’s said the email implicated the paper’s chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck in malpractice and that as a result News International paid Taylor a settlement of around $640,000AU.
Crone said Murdoch was made aware of the problem during a 15-minute meeting where they discussed the lawsuit brought forward by Taylor.
Crone also told last night’s hearing that it was "abundantly" clear to Murdoch that phone hacking had gone beyond NotW’s former royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for illegally accessing phone voicemails.
Crone also claimed News International paid Goodman around $350,000AU in exchange for his silence.
Crone said: “It was clear evidence that phone hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman … In order to settle the case, we had to explain the case to Mr Murdoch and get this authority to settle, so clearly it was discussed.”
The former lawyer also denied knowledge of a story that appeared in both the early NotW London and Scotland editions about direct phone messages left of murdered school girl Milly Dowler’s mobile phone.
The inquiry asked Crone if he knew about the story and why it was then pulled from the paper’s later edition. He told the inquiry he was not aware of the story, and believed any decision to pull it from the paper would have been made by the night time news desk.
“Upon looking at (that) story it would clearly suggest to me that the information has been released by a member of the police investigating the case.
“It’s not uncommon for (the police) to release information and then ask that the story be pulled after it’s already appeared because it wasn’t what they wanted … as far as this story goes the decision to pull it would have come from the night time news desk long after I had gone home,” Mr Crone said.
Notw editor Colin Myler also told the committee that he was with Mr Crone when James Murdoch was approached about the email.
It is expected Murdoch will be recalled to give further evidence.
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