Phone hacker admits News of the World involvement
The private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking case has admitted passing intercepted information to the tabloid's news desk.
The private eye told the high court he dealt with so many individuals on the tabloid's news desk at that he could not recall precisely who received certain items of information.
Mulcaire held a £100,000-a-year contract at the paper and was jailed for six months in 2007 for hacking into phones belonging to staff at Buckingham Palace, along with the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman.
Quoting Mulcaire directly, the court document said: “Information was supplied to the news desk of the News of the World. This was manned by different people, [Mulcaire] cannot now recall who in respect of this claim he passed the information to.”
This is the first direct evidence that suggests a greater number of executives at the title may have had a relationship with Mulcaire, and so, knowledge of the private investigator's phone-hacking operation.
Jeremy Reed QC, representing football agent Sky Andrew, who is suing the News Group Newspapers (NGN) for breach of privacy over phone hacking, said the admission could be "devastating" to the News of the World.
Reed added in court that Mulcaire's alleged actions were the work of a "lone, rotten journalist".