Phone-hacking trial: 'You're a company man now' witness told after hack tape, court hears
- Journalist Dan Evans tells court he played hacked voicemail to an "excited" Andy Coulson
- Journalist caught phone-hacking was never sacked by News of the World.
- Evans has two drug convictions, jury told
The court continued to hear from former News of the World journalist Dan Evans, who has already pleaded guilty to the unlawful interception of voicemails. In the first session the jury heard Evans testify about the culture of the News of the World, the pressure to produce scoops and being told by a senior journalist that his job was to hack phones as that was his "USP" (unique selling point). Evans also told the jury about how he destroyed documents and a dictaphone after fellow journalist Glenn Mulcaire was arrested for phone-hacking in July 2006. The witness also told the jury he had played then News of the World editor Andy Coulson a tape of a voicemail from the phone of James Bond actor Daniel Craig from Sienna Miller. The editor was "excited" and another journalist present told him: "You're a company man now." Coulson then told the witness to record the tape onto another dictaphone and pretend it came from an anonymous source by mailing the tape to the front desk.
Evidence: The trial at the Old Bailey continues
Evans was then asked about a story he produced about the personal life of England footballer Sol Campbell. The witness agreed that the source of this was "probably an intercepted voicemail". The journalist was then shown an email where he discussed his "library of tapes" and suggested he had trouble finding some as this was with his "Daniel and Sienna stuff" which had been destroyed. Evans told the court this was the "tape I played to Andy", a reference to Andy Coulson. This, the witness said, was his only direct contact with Coulson over phone-hacking.
Evans was then asked by the prosecution who knew about his phone-hacking activity at the News of the World. The witness gave a list of nine names, including James Weatherup and Andy Coulson. The rest we cannot report for legal reasons. The witness was asked about one of these names in connection with an actress, Eva Green. Evans said he had picked up this name from Daniel Craig's voicemail, with the suggestion that she was about to be made a Bond girl. He had passed on the tip and after the editorial conference Evans was told that when Coulson questioned the story one of the journalists said "it's from the phones". Evans was unhappy about this being mentioned in from of the executives and the journalist apologised and said "it wont happen again".
Evans was asked where the source of a story about actor Shane Richie and his partner's pregnancy came from. "From his phone," the witness replied. An email was then shown to the court about "button girl", relating to Jenson Button, the racing driver. The witness was asked if he could "spin the phone" to get the name. This, he said, was a request to contact private detectives who could "put a name to the number". Another email shown was a request from a News of the World journalist asking Evans to "get to work on Rolf Harris". If that failed, "we hit a brick wall", in the words of the email. The journalist later wrote back to Evans: "Sometimes we are dazzled by traces and checks and shady stuff and do not try normal journalistic techniques." The email added: "The editor is keen to turn him over." Asked what was meant by "shady stuff" in the email, Evans said it was the use of "dark arts".
The prosecution then asked Evans about the events of March 2010 when he had been discovered hacking the phone of a London fashion designer. He had been at his desk when he was told that the attempt to "burn her voicemail" had been discovered by Vodafone and his phone number traced. He was in "stone cold shock", Evans said, and he had told News of the World staff he did not remember making the phone calls. "Was that true?" he was asked. "No," the witness replied. After this discovery he was suspended from front line reporting but not from his employment. However, in September 2010 the New York Times ran a story naming Evans, after which he was "cut off" and "sent to Coventry". He was not, however, dismissed and remained employed and paid by the paper until it closed in July 2011. He also received a redundancy settlement.
The prosecution then asked the witness if he had any other criminal convictions. Evans said he had twice been convicted for drugs offences and had been a user of recreational drugs since his late teens. He now considered himself as "in recovery" and no longer used any. Finally, the prosecution asked the witness about his guilty plea for perverting the course of justice. Evans told the court he had lied in a witness statement during a civil trial by denying he had hacked voicemail. The prosecution then ended it's examination in chief.
Timothy Langdale, QC for Andy Coulson then asked if the witness could leave the court while a legal matter was discussed. Both the witness and jury then left the court.
When the jury returned Mr Justice Saunders told them that a situation had arisen where documentation had not been shown to the defence due to a "particular source" not passing it to the prosecution so it could be disclosed. The jury was then asked to return at 2.15pm while this was being resolved. "It's not the fault of anyone in court," the judge said, adding: "I hope to see the person who may be at fault in court at 2pm."
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