Phone-hacking trial: 'Do his phone' meant check billing records, Andy Coulson tells court
Case: Calum Best
Proceedings resumed after lunch to hear further testimony from former government head of communications Andy Coulson on his knowledge about the illegal interception of telephone voicemails that took place while he was the editor of the News of the World. Timothy Langdale QC told the court that he was moving on to the hacking of the phone of Hannah Pawlby, the special assistant to Charles Clark who had succeeded David Blunkett as home secretary. Coulson told the court he had not been told at the time that this had occurred.
The court was then shown a list if messages left on Pawlby's phone and intercepted by phone-hacker Glenn Mulcaire. One of the messages was from Coulson himself who told the court that it was nothing to do with phone-hacking. He said that the paper had a "good relationship with Charles Clarke", adding that a senior journalist at the News of the World, who we cannot name for legal reasons, was friendly with Clarke and regularly had dinner with him. "We were a paper that was interested in immigration and Clarke gave us an interview on subject," the defendant told the court.
The court was then shown a 2005 email which discussed a "tip" the paper received that Clarke was in a relationship with Pawlby. Coulson said he did have a memory that there was a rumour that they were involved but he had spoken to a friend of Pawlby, News of the World political editor Ian Kirby, who had told him the story was not true. The witness was shown a June 2005 "news list" of what stories the paper was working. One was one headed "ID card costs". Coulson told the court that this was an issue for the paper but not a "major one" and would have been dealt with by the political editor.
The accused was then asked about another story on the news list, an appeal from the lawyer of "great train robber" Ronnie Biggs that his client be released from prison on compassionate grounds. "The story would have been of interest to us if he had been released," Coulson told the court.
An email from journalist Neville Thurlbeck from the same day was shown to court in which the journalist reported back on the results of his surveillance of Pawlby's home. The defendant was asked if he was aware this was going on. "No," he said, leading to Judge Saunders asking if it was not "odd that no-one was telling you they were watching the home secretary". "This looks to me to have been very early stage so I'm not surprised I didn't know," Coulson replied, adding: "If they saw something unusual or evidence the story was true I'm sure it would have been brought to my attention."
The former editor was asked why he called Pawlby on that day asking to be put in contact with Clarke. "I don't recall the message," Coulson answered, but said he "assumed I was calling about a different story", saying that he may have been calling about Ronnie Biggs as "this would have been a page one story for us if he was going to be released". The court has already heard that Pawlby never received the message from Coulson as it had been listened to by Glenn Mulcaire and ended up in her "saved messages" folder. The jury was then shown the News of the World from 19 July 2005 which contained a story titled "Ronnie Biggs to be freed in a week".
The court then took a short break.
When the jury returned, the defence QC moved on to the topic of the hacking of TV personality Calum Best's phone. Coulson was asked about a 2005 email the court has already seen in which he instructed a member of staff to "do his phone". The defendant said this was a reference to checking the phone records of a journalist, who we cannot name for legal reasons, to see if he was in contact with Best and had nothing to do with hacking. The court was then shown articles from the News of the World about Best, including one called "my 11 minutes of shame" about an incident between him and Elizabeth Jagger in a London nightclub. The defence QC told the court that while Best's name appeared in Glenn Mulcaire's notebooks there is no evidence he was being hacked. The journalist, however, was. Judge Saunders then intervened to tell the jury that Best "had appeared on Celebrity Love Island twice, which is unique".
Further stories about Calum Best were read to the court, including some about previous witness Lorna Hogan who was expecting his child. The former editor told the court that he did not recall knowing about the Best stories but agreed "they may have been mentioned in conference". Coulson said he had no knowledge at the time that any hacking was going on.
Coulson was then asked about the journalist mentioned earlier and told the court he regarded him as a friend who was "good at his job, a people person with lots of good contacts". The former editor told the court he was concerned that the journalist may have been sharing too much information with other reporters and some people suspected he had been involved in leaking stories to other newspapers. "I was quite resistant to the whole idea that people working for me were leaking stories, but there was a growing body of evidence, so in the end I, reluctantly, approved the request for billing data in relation to him," he said. The leaks, the defendant said, "caused disruption and caused paranoia", adding that "too much time was wasted on it". Coulson said he asked the HR department if it was appropriate for him to check the mobile phone billing records of employees. He was told that it was and asked for it to be done. Coulson said he could not remember the outcome although he was sure "no positive results came out of it".
The defence QC then showed the court further emails that showed that Calum Best had contacted Lorna Hogan to complain about her plans to sell the story about her unborn child to the News of the World. In a further email, Coulson was told "Calum is always boasting that he has good friends on the News of the World" and it is to this that Coulson replied "do his phone". The defence QC told the court that his team had only been told about the first email in the chain "at 9am on the morning he gave evidence". "I was in no doubt that this was not an instruction to hack anyone's phone, I've been very clear about that and it's been frustrating that this email took so long to emerge." The former editor was asked if he could explain why there was no evidence that the phone checks were ever carried out. "I did not have a massive enthusiasm for this so it just drifted away," he replied.
The trial then adjourned until Tuesday.
All of the defendants deny all of the charges, the trial continues.
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