Phone hacking was “widely discussed” at the News of the World and ex-editor Andy Coulson sought to cover it up, the British tabloid’s disgraced former royal reporter said in a letter published Tuesday. Clive Goodman, who was jailed for hacking in 2007, alleged that Coulson, who went on to work for Prime Minister David Cameron, had offered to let him keep his job if he agreed not to implicate the paper in hacking when he came to court.
The explosive accusation comes in a letter written by Goodman in March 2007, shortly after leaving prison, to appeal against his dismissal from the now defunct News of the World. The letter was released by parliament’s media committee. “This practice (phone hacking) was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the editor (Coulson),” Goodman wrote. He added that the newspaper’s senior legal manager, Tom Crone, and Coulson “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.” The letter was supplied to lawmakers by law firm Harbottle & Lewis and was redacted at the request of police, according to The Guardian newspaper. Another version of the letter was provided by News of the World publisher News International, but it was redacted to remove all references to hacking being discussed at Coulson’s editorial meetings and to the offer to keep Goodman on staff if he kept quiet.
Coulson quit as editor of the News of the World after Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire were jailed, but has denied any knowledge of thne phone hacking. He went on to work for Cameron as his media chief, but was forced to resign in January amid continuing allegations that the hacking at the News of the World went beyond one rogue reporter while he was at the helm.
