Phone-hacking trial: Coulson approved 'monitoring' royal phones, court hears

The defence barrister began by reminding the jury that his client had pleaded guilty to hacking offences from November 2005 to August 2006. The court was shown a transcript of a cassette found at Goodman's home of a voicemail message from Prince William left on the mobile phone of Kate Middleton making arrangements to meet. Spens asked Goodman how he came to be in possession of this. Goodman told the jury that the recording came from convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire, who had passed it on to him.

Spens suggested to his client that there were other people he had hacked outside those named in his original trial, and asked if he knew hacking was illegal. Goodman replied "not at the time, no but I knew it was unethical". The defendant was asked how he first encountered Mulcaire, and he replied it was through News of the World news editor Greg Miskiw, who "worked closely with him". Mulcaire, Goodman said, had the "reputation to be able to crack impossible stories" but up until 2005 the defendant said he had no knowledge of how he did so. Goodman testified that in 2002 Miskiw approached him and asked who was close to Prince William and Prince Harry. Goodman said he passed on some names and Miskiw would then come back with snippets of information. In January 2005, the defendant said, Miskiw gave him instructions on how to hack phones and Goodman started intercepting voicemails from the royal household. "I think he was finding it tiresome so he offloaded to me," the defendant said.

Miskiw, the court was told, left the newspaper in June 2005 and another journalist, who we cannot name for legal reasons, took over as news editor. The journalist, Goodman said, found out that he was still paying Mulcaire and after a "power struggle" took control of instructing the private detective. In October 2005, Goodman said, Mulcaire phoned him and was "very sore, as he believed the News of the World was trying to cut his budget and was looking to make up the shortfall". Goodman said Mulcaire offered him a "project where he would provide me details of three people close to Prince William and Harry in exchange for £500 per week and we would see what it would produce". Goodman told the court that he agreed and Mulcaire supplied the direct dial and pins of three people close to the princes. Mulcaire told Goodman that the source of the information was the "security services" but the defendant had "no way to know if that was true".

Goodman told the court that he had no budget to pay Mulcaire £500 a week so he met then editor Andy Coulson and told him the full details of the "project". "There was a discussion about how we paid for it" and it was agreed to take the money from the editorial budget. Goodman said Coulson approved a "two month trial" and the payments were routed through managing editor Stuart Kuttner under the false name "Alexander". In addition to his use of Mulcaire, Goodman told the court that another journalist, who we cannot name for legal reasons, was hacking on "an industrial scale" including intercepting the voicemails of his own editor Andy Coulson. Goodman said the journalist would hack Coulson first thing in the morning to find out what stories rival departments were putting forward at the daily conference. He was also hacking Rebekah Brooks' "to find out what the Sun were up to".

Goodman told the court that the hacking "project" ran until he was arrested in August 2006 and produced a number of good stories for the paper about the royal princes. In an 2003 email shown to the court Goodman discusses "Carvery", an "irreverent gossip column" set up by Coulson. In the mail Goodman states: "Greg's people turning mobile numbers". This did not involve hacking, the defendant said; instead it was a reference to using a "reverse telephone directory" to obtain addresses to go with the telephone numbers.

A further email from Goodman to Coulson in October 2005 was shown to the court in which Goodman passes on a Royal wedding story. Coulson replied "how did you get this" to which the defendant replied "lip-reader". Goodman told the court that it was common practice at big royal events to employ a lip-reader to try and pick up stories and this mail too had nothing to do with phone hacking. In further emails Goodman tells Coulson "our new project is yielding results". Goodman said this was a reference to the "Alexander" project, ie phone hacking. Coulson replied "pop in." Goodman said he did "pop in" and they discussed the project and what it should focus on. In November 2005 Goodman emailed Coulson about continuing payments for "Matey". The witness said matey was the name he and Coulson had agreed to use for Glenn Mulcaire. Coulson replied "another month".

The court was then shown a transcript of a voicemail left by Prince William on the phone of Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, his private secretary, asking for help on an essay on the 1980 siege of the Iranian embassy. Lowther-Pinkerton, the court has already heard, was part of the SAS team that ended the siege by storming the embassy. Goodman said he was alerted to the call by Glenn Mulcaire and then listened to it, taped it and made this transcript. Goodman said it was a good story but to get it published he had to "show the transcript to the editor". "Did you do that," the QC asked. "Yes I did," the defendant replied. In a later email Coulson tells Goodman about the story, "we are a million miles away from standing this up". Goodman replied the next day that he was going to contact various people to try and confirm the story adding "as we know it is 100 per cent fact". Goodman said this was because they had both read the transcript. The email went on that some of the information they had "is too precise to get through unnoticed ... if you put that specific information in the story it becomes obvious were it came from." The defendant said he added some wrong information to the article to conceal that it's source was a voicemail interception.

The court was then shown the article resulting from the alleged hack which appeared in the News of the World's gossip column "Blackadder" on 18 December 2005 accusing Prince William of cheating on his Sandhurst exams.

The court then took a short break