Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

"How can Coulson possibly say he didn't know what was going on with the private investigators?" former features executive McMullan asked.

Indeed, as a national and international journalist I regard it is absolutely inconceivable that NOTW editor Coulson did not know the type of evidence being used to support investigations which risked potentially multi-million pound libel suits if they were not evidentially robust.

Phone hacking was rife at News of the World, claims new witness

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Poll finds 52% think PM's communications chief must go

September 8, 2010

A former senior News of the World journalist has gone public to corroborate claims that phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the tabloid while the prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, was deputy editor and then editor of the paper.

Paul McMullan, a former features executive and then member of the newspaper's investigations team, says that he personally commissioned private investigators to commit several hundred acts which could be regarded as unlawful, that use of illegal techniques was no secret at the paper, and that senior editors, including Coulson, were aware this was going on.

"How can Coulson possibly say he didn't know what was going on with the private investigators?" he asked.

Coulson has always said he had no knowledge of any such activity. News International has maintained that royal reporter Clive Goodman, jailed for hacking phones belonging to members of the royal household, was the only journalist involved in the practice.

McMullan is one of six former News of the World journalists who have independently told the Guardian that Coulson, who was deputy editor from 2000 and editor from January 2003 to January 2007, knew that his reporters were engaging in unlawful acts.

McMullan's decision to speak publicly about illegal techniques at the paper came as the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, paved the way for a second, powerful committee of MPs to investigate the scandal.

The cross-party standards and privileges committee has more powers to summon witnesses than the culture committee which has already reported on the affair, and the home affairs committee which announced on Tuesday that it would examine phone-hacking.

Coulson also faced mounting pressure to step down from his £140,000 post as David Cameron's communications chief as a YouGov poll found that 52% of voters thought he should quit with just 24% saying he should stay in the job.

All six of the former journalists who worked for Coulson at the News of the World paint the same picture of a newsroom where private investigators were used routinely to gather information by illegal means and where some reporters did so themselves. They say senior editors knew about this, because reporters could not commission private investigators without going through their desk editor; because editors routinely demanded to know the source of information in stories; and because executives kept tight control of their budgets.

McMullan, who is now landlord of the Castle pub in Dover, was deputy features editor when Coulson arrived at the paper as deputy editor in 2000 and says he [McMullan] spoke regularly to Steve Whittamore, the Hampshire private investigator who ran a network which specialised in selling confidential information to newspapers from phone companies and government databases, among other services.

"I would speak to Steve nearly every day when I was deputy features editor, and we'd chat about what he'd done and if his bill was too big. Getting information from confidential records, we did that regularly, time and time again. I always hid behind the journalist's fundamental get-out clause that, if it's in the public interest, you can do what you like. Some of what Steve did was legal, like using the electoral register, but if he went a step further, I would not have given a second thought to whether that was illegal, because that's part of your job," said McMullan.

He believes Coulson was right to allow his reporters to invade privacy in order to nail wrongdoers: "Investigative journalism is a noble profession but we have to do ignoble things." He says that at the time, reporters did not believe it was illegal to hack voicemail and were quite open about it. "Most reporters did it themselves, sitting at their desk. It was something that people would do when they were bored sitting outside somebody's house. I don't think at the time senior editors at the paper thought it was an issue. Everybody was doing it.

"Coulson would certainly be well aware that the practice was pretty widespread. He is conceivably telling the truth when he says he didn't specifically know every time a reporter would do it. I wouldn't have told him. It wasn't of significance for me to say I just rang up David Beckham and listened to his messages. In general terms, he would have known that reporters were doing it."

McMullan argues that these techniques are essential to investigative work. "How can Coulson possibly say he didn't know what was going on with [private investigators]? He was the brains behind the investigations department [to which McMullan was transferred by Coulson]. How can he say he had no idea about how it works? It's just a shame that you are not awarded prizes for it. Instead, you are regulated so that wrongdoers can carry on with their corruption."

The New York Times last week quoted another former News of the World journalist, Sean Hoare, who said he had played illegally hacked voicemail messages to Coulson when they worked at the Sun and that Coulson had "actively encouraged" him to hack messages at the News of the World. In a BBC radio interview, Hoare accused Coulson of lying. Coulson has continued to deny all knowledge of illegal activity.

None of the former News of the World staffers who have spoken to the Guardian claim to have direct evidence of Coulson's involvement in law-breaking. All of them say that illegal activity, including phone hacking, was so widespread it is inconceivable senior editors did not know.

One former desk editor, who was working for Coulson in August 2006 when police arrested the paper's contracted private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, and the royal correspondent, Goodman, said: "The hacking was so routine that people didn't realise they were doing anything wrong. They were just doing what was expected of them. People were obsessed with getting celebs' phone numbers. There were senior people who were really scared when the Mulcaire story came out. Everyone was surprised that Clive Goodman was the only one who went down."

Former reporters say the newsroom was run with a heavy hand. One veteran who worked for Coulson, said: "Andy Coulson absolutely knew. They all knew. He sat in the newsroom, often on the backbench on Friday and Saturday. It was a regular daily joke in conference: 'say no more'. Andy would ask questions in conference. And he'd be told, 'nudge, nudge'."

Former staff say that tapes and transcripts of voicemail were common in the office but concealed from the outside world. "The News of the World are always very very careful not to use anything that was taped from a phone. We could use it as raw information. You listen to their phone, you know they're going to meet a lover at such a place and such a time, and you're there with the photographer."

One former reporter claimed that Mulcaire was used on almost every story, if not for hacking into voicemail then for accessing confidential databases: "The paper was paying Glenn Mulcaire £2,000 a week, and they wanted their money's worth. For just about every story, they rang Glenn. It wasn't just tapping. It was routine. "Even if it was just a car crash or a house fire on a Saturday, they'd call Glenn, and he'd come back with ex-directory phone numbers, the BT list of friends and family and their addresses, lists of numbers called from their mobile phones. This was just commonplace. He was hacking masses of phones.We reckoned David Beckham had 13 different sim cards, and Glenn could hack every one of them. How could senior editors not know that they are spending £2,000 a week on this guy, and using him on just about every story that goes into the paper?"

The claims by former staff contradict an internal inquiry at the News of the World. Les Hinton, former chair of News International, told the media select committee he had conducted "a full and rigorous internal inquiry" and was "absolutely convinced" Goodman was the only person who knew about the hacking. Scotland Yard and the Press Complaints Commission also found no evidence of the involvement in hacking of anybody at the paper other than Goodman. It has emerged neither the police nor the PCC interviewed any reporter or editor or manager from the paper other than Goodman.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/sep...ld-witness