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Andy Coulson 'expressed satisfaction' with hacking abilities, Dan Evans tells phone-hacking trial

By James Doleman

February 3, 2014 | 4 min read

  • Day truncated by legal argument
  • Dan Evans evidence ends
  • Mulcaire "tasked" over 500 times while Brooks editor

Court resumed this morning to hear the sixth day of evidence from Dan Evans, a former News of the World reporter who, the jury has been told, has already pleaded guilty to the illegal interception of voicemail communications while working at the now defunct tabloid.

Dan Evans

Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, continued his re-examination of the witness by asking about how he obtained the "Unique Voicmail Number" of actor Daniel Craig's phone. Evans replied his recollection was that he had been given it by "one of the girls at ELI". ELI,the court has heard, were "tracing agents" employed by the News of the World to gather information.

Evans was then asked about a breakfast meeting he had with then News of the World editor Andy Coulson and agreed that Coulson had "expressed satisfaction" with the witness's "hacking abilities". Edis then took Evans through his previous witness statements looking at his attempts to secure immunity from prosecution through 2012. Evans told the court he had been told he would have to have "clean hands" and be open with the police about all of his illegal activities. After his "scoping" interview with the police, which was not conducted under caution, officers conducted further investigations into his phone records and expenses claims. "It was a slam dunk," the witness said.

Evans was then asked about his legal advice and told the court he had found out that immunity for prosecution was only usually granted "to save life". However his own lawyers had told him there was a "good chance" of receiving it. The prosecution QC then asked the witness exactly what information ELI obtained for him. Evans told the court it was mainly telephone "traffic", for example what time of day two people were contacting each other which might reveal "more than a friendship". ELI did this by securing phone billing records and passing them on to journalists.

The jury was then asked to leave the court while legal matters were discussed.

When the case resumed, the jury was told that is was possible they would not be required to attend court on Wednesday and Thursday. A police officer was then called to the stand to testify to a schedule relating to Rebekah Brooks' editorship of the News of the World. Jonathan Laidlaw QC, for Brooks, then rose to question him about the five hundred or so "taskings" of convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire that police have documented from that period. Over 50 per cent of these however contained no mobile telephone numbers.

The police, the court was told, had divided these taskings into 3 categories: those where it could not be shown that hacking took place, those that appeared to be "blagging" calls and those that contained indications, such as PIN or UVN numbers, that hacking occurred. The defence barrister went through some of the police definitions, for example pointing to an entry for Natalie Pinkham which he said did not say "pin" but "pink". The officer said he was not a handwriting expert but his reading was "pin".

The next page shown related to television presenter John Leslie. The officer was asked why this had been categorised as a hacking call. The policeman replied it was the reference to "do both mobiles".

Court then rose for lunch.

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