Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

So much for Cameron Spinmeister Coulson knowing nothing of Edmondson's activities.

Murdoch's goons are attempting to paint Edmondson as a lone rogue hack. Edmondson should be looking to blow the whistle on Murdoch's rotten empire:

Ian Edmondson was at heart of News of the World's operations

Former colleagues paint picture of Ian Edmondson as trusted attack dog under Andy Coulson's reign at News of the World

James Robinson guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 January 2011 20.34

Ian Edmondson, who has been suspended from active duties after allegations that he was linked to phone hacking at the News of the World, was one of Andy Coulson's inner circle of executives when David Cameron's director of communications was editor of the paper, according to a former reporter on the tabloid.

As assistant editor (news), he was one of a handful of senior employees who would discuss sensitive stories privately after editorial meetings had taken place.

"You had an elite and Edmondson was definitely in on that and enjoyed being in on that," the former reporter said. "There would be [the editorial] conference in the morning, then the news desk would be back in [to Coulson's office] and it was discussed in privacy. Then the stories would be dished out [to reporters]."

Edmondson was hired by Neil Wallis, then Coulson's deputy editor at the paper, in November 2004 as a news executive although, according to the former News of the World source, "Edmondson reported directly to Andy because he was the editor. Wallis had a nice title and a bit of power ... but Andy was in charge of that paper."

He remembers Coulson buying his senior editorial team, including Edmondson, replica England shirts with their names emblazoned on the back.

Edmondson had been a reporter at the News of the World but left to take up a more senior role at the Sunday People in early 2000, before Coulson became editor in 2003. Coulson promoted Edmondson to assistant editor (news) in October 2005.

From his place at the heart of the news operation, he would have been privy to the big scoops the paper published each week. In the case of Edmondson's ex-colleague Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, some of those scoops involved paying the private detective Glenn Mulcaire to hack into phone messages left on mobile phones belonging to public figures.

Goodman and Mulcaire were jailed in 2007. Coulson resigned and has always maintained Goodman was a rogue reporter acting alone. It is now alleged by lawyers acting for Sienna Miller, who is suing the News of the World for breach of privacy, that Edmondson was aware of that practice.

The paper's owner, News Group, has suspended Edmondson until the outcomes of Miller's legal action and a separate case being brought by Nicola Phillips, a former assistant to the publicist Max Clifford, are known.

Fleet Street sources claim Coulson and Edmondson knew each other professionally before he joined the paper, although they were not close. "I don't think they were particularly big buddies," said one journalist who worked with Edmondson and knew him well. "But Edmondson was a good attack dog in a nice suit a Coulson sort of person. He was very tough and reporters feared him."

That is not unusual for a news executive at a Sunday tabloid whose reputation rests on breaking stories although the former News of the World reporter insisted Edmondson was "universally loathed".

The former Fleet Street colleague said: "He was not well liked because he was so ambitious, but he was bright. He was dealing with tabloid stuff … but he could just as easily have made it on a broadsheet."

A keen runner and a boxing fanatic, Edmondson took part in at least one "white-collar" boxing bout and idolised boxers. The key question now is whether he knew that widespread phone-hacking was taking place and, if so, which other senior executives at the paper, including Coulson himself, might also have been aware of it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan...on-profile