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Andy Coulson Rebekah Brooks David Blunkett

Phone-hacking trial: David Blunkett called media 'hyenas' and 'absolutely vile' in voicemails played to court

By James Doleman

November 11, 2013 | 5 min read

As the trial of of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and six others resumed today, there were only four defendants in the dock: Coulson, Rebekah Brooks, her husband Charlie Brooks and Mark Hanna, as today's proceedings did not concern the other defendants.

Tapes: Former home secretary David Blunkett

Andrew Edis QC, for the Crown, began the proceedings by reading a statement from David Blunkett, a former UK home secretary. In his statement, Mr Blunkett admitted he had a three-year affair with a woman named Kimberly Quinn, during which time they had a child together. He also identified voicemails found in a safe at the News of the World in 2011 as ones he had left Quinn in 2004.

The prosecution then moved on to another associate of Mr Blunkett, Sally Anderson. In 2005, Anderson sold a story to the Sunday People, via the publicist Max Clifford, claiming she had an affair with Blunkett. The court was then played recordings, found at the house of convicted phone-hacker Glenn Mulcaire, which the prosecution claimed were recordings made by Mulcaire of him listening to Anderson’s voicemails from Blunkett.

In one recording played to the court, Blunkett apologised to Anderson, saying he understood how upset she was by the press attention, calling reporters “absolutely vile” and hoping they would “rot in hell”, adding that they were “real bastards” and “hyenas”. At one point a male voice, which the prosecution said was Mulcaire, was heard exclaiming "just say I love you and it’s £25k".

It being just before 11am, the court rose so that those attending could take part in a minute's silence for Remembrance Day.

When the court resumed, a statement from Blunkett then went on to deny any intimate relationship with Anderson, noting they were just “friends”, and adding that he successfully sued The People newspaper over their story.

The jury was then read a statement from Sally Anderson. It said that in mid-2005 she came under intense media attention over her friendship with David Blunkett, that her car was followed and her friends approached by journalists. She added that she had flown to the US to get away from all the attention only to find that there was a “News of the World reporter on same flight sat near to me”.

In a New York cafe, a News of the World reporter, Rob Kelloway, gave her a letter offering £150,000 for her story. Anderson's statement added that she "couldn't work out how he found us", and went on to identify phone numbers on Mulcaire’s notebooks as those of her family members, her dad, aunt, grandmother, her father's friends and her workplace. In the end, she “did do a couple of articles” as she felt under so much pressure.

The court then heard from the next witness, Hugh Evans, a special adviser to Blunkett from July 2001 until December 2004. He confirmed he had been security vetted to the “highest level of clearance” after the 9/11 2001 attacks in New York and that he used a mobile phone frequently to contact Blunkett.

He also told the court that the home secretary "liked to use voicemail" and often left "extended messages". He told the court that the pair were always very careful about discussing matters on the phone, but this was due to worries about live conversations being intercepted, not voicemail hacking.

On 12 August 2005, Evans received a call from the Home Office informing him that the News of the World was planning to run a story about Blunkett’s private life. Blunkett decided to not confirm the story but also “not to lie about it”. Evans spoke to Blunkett on the same day and they agreed that he should not lie. He then spoke to Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World, whom he challenged on his evidence, and suggested his evidence “did not stack up”. Coulson, he said, replied in a “flat voice” that he was “absolutely certain his story was accurate”. The witness told the court that he was “puzzled how he could be so confident”.

Evans was then cross-examined by Timothy Langdale representing Mr Coulson, which we will cover in our next report.

Andy Coulson Rebekah Brooks David Blunkett

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