Phone-hacking trial: Coulson admits hearing Blunkett voicemail recordings in 2004

Timothy Langdale QC, counsel for Coulson, began the day by turning to an August 2004 story about then home secretary David Blunkett. The defendant was asked about the newspaper's relationships with politicians while he was editor. "I was talking to politicians every week," Coulson said, telling the court there would be "social meetings" over lunch or dinner especially during the party conference season. "It was a two way relationship," the defendant told the court. Asked about Blunkett, Coulson told the court he had had "a very good relationship with David Blunkett, we thought he was doing a very good job" and mentioned that other senior News International staff also met with the former home secretary on a social basis. The court was then read a number of agreed facts in the case including that Glenn Mulcaire had hacked the phone of publisher Kimberley Quinn, and tapes of voicemails left to her by Blunkett were found by police in the safe of a senior News of the World executive.

Coulson told the court that on 23 July 2004 he was on holiday in Italy and received a call from a News of the World journalist, Neville Thurlbeck. The defendant testified that Thurlbeck had said he "had a tip that Blunkett was having an affair with Kimberley Quinn and he was sure of this because he had heard some voicemail messages". Coulson said he was "quite angry about it", firstly because of the voicemails and secondly because Blunkett was a "friend of the paper". "I was very clear that I wanted any investigation by the paper to stop," the defendant told the court. "My concern was that it was an apparent breach of privacy. I knew him professionally and he was someone we supported," the defendant added. Coulson said he rang another senior journalist at the paper, who we cannot name for legal reasons, to "instruct" him to stop the investigation

Coulson told the court that when he returned from holiday in August 2004 Thurlbeck came to his office to "re-pitch" the David Blunkett story. The defendant said that Thurlbeck "wanted to play him some voicemails" to prove the story was in the public interest. Coulson said he listened to the "intimate" messages, and told the court that in one Blunkett "declared his love" for Quinn and there were also references to "terrorist arrests" and GCHQ. Coulson described the atmosphere in the meeting as "pretty testy" and described himself as "not best pleased". The former editor was asked if he knew where Thurlbeck had got the voicemail recordings from. "I assumed he did it himself, no other names were mentioned," Coulson said. He testified that "this was the first and only time a voicemail message was ever played to me" and he decided to think about the issue and decide if the story would be in the "public interest."

The defendant told the court that he considered the issue over the weekend and decided that the public interest argument was "sound" and that the investigation should continue. "The story needed to be stood up, we needed confirmation of it," Coulson said. The defendant said his "initial plan" was to show Blunkett all of the material the paper had, including the voicemails and photographs he had of Blunkett and Quinn meeting in London. The witness said: "I can't be sure when I changed course, but I decided to approach David Blunkett myself in a way that would preserve the relationship." Coulson told the court he took legal advice from a News International lawyer, who we cannot name, and was told that he could avoid some of the privacy issues involved with the story by not naming Quinn as the woman involved. Coulson was then asked if the legal advisor knew about the hacked voicemails and replied: "I don't know if I told him or he already knew". At this point Judge Saunders asked the jury to leave the court while a legal matter was dealt with.

When the jury returned, the witness was asked how he thought Thurlbeck had obtained the messages. "I assumed he had got them himself," Coulson replied. The defendant was asked if he knew before 2006 that phone hacking was illegal or was he told by the lawyer. "There was no mention of illegality," he replied. The former editor said he was aware that Blunkett "was a friend of the paper and a friend of my boss" so he contacted Blunkett to arrange a face to face meeting at the politician's home in Sheffield, "My aim as the editor of the News of the World was to confirm the story," he said. Coulson also said he spoke to a senior News of the World executive and told him about "the material I had". The defendant said he would like to make it clear "I was not asking for his permission or his sign off, it was my decision and my mistake"/ Asked what his "mistake was", Coulson said he should have told Blunkett about the voicemails. "It would have brought everything to a head," he said, adding that he was not aware at this time that the interception of voicemails was illegal.

The defendant was then asked about telephone contact between himself and Rebekah Brooks. Coulson said he did not discuss the Blunkett story with Brooks and there was nothing unusual in them calling and texting each other every day. The jury was then played a recording of the meeting between the defendant and Blunkett. Asked if he knew the recording was being made, Coulson said "the tape recorder was on the table".

On the tape Blunkett originally refuses to comment that "he is having an affair with a married woman", saying instead "we are close friends". "You are more than friends," Coulson replies, saying he is confident about his sources. "Forgive me for being crude about this, but I'm not going to lay out photos of you and this lady in a bedroom," he says. "My private life is my own... I've been divorced for 14 years.... what do you expect me to say," Blunkett asks, "anyone could have made this up". Coulson replies: "I would not have exposed myself in this way if I was not confident, I'm asking you to accept the information I've got."

The former editor tells Blunkett "I think I can run this story in a way that will minimise it", saying that other papers would treat the story in a different way, adding: "There's a certain amount of information I can reveal... people know about it David." Blunkett replies that he is concerned not to draw bad publicity onto Kimberly Quinn and does not want to draw attention to his private life. "In 1995 when the Tories were in a real pickle I said we should take them on the political arena, if I put my hand in the till it's another matter but I don't want my private life to be fair game, that's just what I've got to do."

Coulson replies: "I'll ask you the question directly, is the story true?" Blunkett answers: "I neither confirm or deny what someone has said to you, Kimberly is a friend of mine and I've spent a lot of time with her over the last few years, she reads books to me and goes to concerts with me." He then adds: "You are going to print the story anyway." "This is a serious situation and it's going to have to be dealt with," Coulson is heard saying ."I have a lot of thinking to do but the News of the World runnung the story will bring the speculation to an end." The tape then comes to an end.

The witness said he then returned to London and looked at a number of "newspaper cuttings" about links between Blunkett and Quinn. Coulson was asked why he told Blunkett he had "sources" for the story. "In my mind I was talking about Thurlbeck's information," he said, adding that he did not mention the voicemail messages as he was looking to "minimise the risk of an injunction". Coulson told the court that he thought the story "was almost certainly true" but was unsure if he had enough information to "stand it up".

The defendant said he had a later telephone conversation with Blunkett in which the then home secretary agreed to issue a statement to the paper and asked Coulson to speak to his special advisor Huw Evans. The defendant said he spoke to Evans on the Friday before publication and agreed to remove parts of the story that could affect Blunkett's security and ensure the article did not imply Blunkett "was falling down on the job". Coulson said he read the whole article to Evans and asked him that if anything in the story was incorrect he should tell him. "He didn't respond that any part of the story was wrong, I concluded the story was true and had been stood up." The story was printed on the front page on 15 August 2004 but did not name Quinn.

The court was told that on the 16 August the Sun, then edited by Rebekah Brooks, named Kimberley Quinn as the woman Blunkett was having an affair with. Coulson was asked if he had told Brooks Quinn's name and he replied "the idea that we co-operated on the story is incorrect". Coulson said "it was possible" Brooks had told him the Sun was going to name Quinn, but he had no recollection of it. "We tried to run the story in such a way as to minimise the damage," the defendant said, and he avoided any mention of children in the story. "Although later on that became a big issue."

The defence barrister then moved on to another person associated with Blunkett, Sally Anderson, whose phone messages were intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire in 2005. The court was shown documents that confirmed that Anderson herself was passing information to the Daily Mail, had engaged a publicist and was later forced to apologise to Blunkett after losing a libel action in the high court. Coulson was asked about an email he sent to James Weatherup about a draft News of the World story from October 2005 about Blunkett and Anderson instructing him to give the story a "more investigative feel". The defendant told the court that the paper had information that Anderson was also seeing someone else which "was at odds with other stories that were saying this was a proper romance". The court was told that Anderson played 10 voicemails she had from Blunkett to the publicist.

The QC then moved on to ask his client about a 2004 story relating to David Beckham and Rebekah Loos. The court was told that the paper was working on a story that Beckham and Loos were having an affair and the paper paid a publicist, who we cannot name for legal reasons, to get an exclusive. Coulson told the court he was on holiday with his family and had to return as the publicist was causing difficulties. "We had a testy relationship," the defendant confirmed.

The court was then shown emails from Coulson from a company called "silent shadow services" which complains that they had not been getting enough work from the News of the World. One journalist comments on the the email, saying Derek Webb was the best "digger and follower" in the business, "is worth three reporters" and has night vision camera equipment. Coulson told the court that he did not remember the email nor could he recall why he replied "is this sorted yet".

Court then rose for lunch.