Phone-hacking trial: Sources, spooks and private affairs

David Spens QC, who is representing former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, continued his cross-examination by asking the former editor if his position was still that he was unaware his news editors were all involved in phone hacking. "That's right," Coulson replied.

The defence QC then moved on to Coulson's earlier testimony that he was played voicemail messages from then home secretary David Blunkett by chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, in 2004. "Surely you must have asked him how you got access to the messages," Spens asked. "I don't think I did," Coulson replied. "The most important thing in my mind was to tell him to stop," he added. The barrister suggested to the defendant that he was a "hands on editor". "That's how you described me yesterday," Coulson responded. Spens suggested to the defendant "you didn't ask because you already knew it was going on at the News of the World". "That's not true," Coulson replied, adding: "I reacted the way that I did, that's what happened." The former editor confirmed that Thurlbeck was not disciplined for his actions of reported to the Press Complaints commission. "Why not," Spens asked. "I decided it was a decision for me," Coulson responded.

The defendant was then asked about his conversations with a News International executive, who we cannot name for legal reasons, and asked if he had taken any disciplinary action against the journalist. "No," Coulson replied, and confirmed he did not speak to Thurlbeck's line manager about his hacking. "In a way, I would argue the system worked, the reporter brought it to me," the former editor told the court. Coulson then confirmed that a News of the World legal advisor, who we also cannot name, was informed of the voicemail interception but did not advise the paper about the illegality of phone hacking.

Coulson was then asked why he told Blunkett he had "sources" on his relationship with Spectator publisher Kimberly Quinn. "That was a lie," the barrister suggested. "It was misleading," Coulson replied. "Do you feel any shame for what you did," Spens asked. "I regret it," Coulson replied, adding: "This was about someone having an affair and given what was going on in my life, the irony is not lost on me." ""Pure hypocrisy isn't it," the barrister suggested, as this story was being run while Coulson was also having an affair, with Rebekah Brooks. "As I said, the irony is not lost on me," the defendant replied.

The defendant was then asked if he was aware of the term "hacking" in early 2005. "I'm not sure I was," Coulson replied. The jury was then shown an email from Goodman to Coulson in February 2005 which discusses if someone is "hacking Paddy's voicemail". "Were you familiar with the term," the defendant was asked. "I'm not sure that I was, I'm not sure I knew what that meant in 2005," he replied. Coulson was asked about a lunch he had with Clive Goodman in August 2005. "I don't remember the lunch," the witness replied, and said he could not recall telling Goodman he needed to find ways to get stories about "the younger royals" but said he thought that would have been reasonable thing to ask.

The former editor was then asked if he was aware that his journalists were accessing personal telephone data. "It was not clear at all," Coulson replied saying that if one of his journalists had talked about "triangulating" it would "have sounded like an episode of 24, I'm sure I would have remembered it". Asked about a specific story, "the lotto rapist", Coulson said he recalled this was a "picture based story" and did not recall anyone discussing locating the subject via his mobile telephone data and had never heard the name Glenn Mulciare until 2006.

Coulson was then asked "you are keen on football?" "Reasonably," he said. The defendant was then shown an article from the sports section of News of the World in 2002 which, as part of a match report, names Mulcaire as being an "investigator" with the News of the World as well as a striker with AFC Wimbledon nicknamed "Trigger". "That is the least important least read sports page in the paper," Coulson replied, saying he had not noticed the article at the time.

The defence barrister then turned to the budget for Mulcaire's company, "9 consultancy", and asked the defendant if £105,000 was a lot of money. "It is a lot of money but not in relation to the News of the World's budget of £33 million," Coulson replied, adding that he had a memory of discussing the company and being told using 9 consultancy was a "money saving exercise". The defendant also denied telling people not to discuss voicemail interception at the daily editorial conference. "That didn't happen," he told the court.

The former editor was then asked about his approval for a weekly payment of £500 for Goodman's "Alexander project," which the court has been told was a retainer for phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire. Coulson said: "I didn't need to know who it was, Clive was a senior editor and I took it at face value." "Did you not at least need to know it was not the same person as your source," the QC asked. "Clive knew who my source was," Coulson replied adding: "I didn't see this as as long term commitment, it was a trial." The defendant was asked why the retainer was not put through the newsdesk budget. "I don't know," Coulson replied, "that was not my decision". The defence QC told the court his client's case was that he had told Coulson that the project was to "monitor three royal phones". "That's not true," the defendant replied, denying Goodman had shown him a list of which phones were to be hacked.

The defendant was then shown an email, sent to him by Clive Goodman, about a story that Prince Harry was asking for help in his Sandhurst exams. In the mail Goodman says "as we know the story is 100% fact" which the defence barrister suggested was because Coulson had seen the transcript of a voicemail. "People use that phrase in newspapers all the time," the former editor replied, adding "this is another example of Clive's use of rather dramatic language". Asked about Goodman's comment that the story could not be too specific as this might reveal the source, Coulson replied that "journalists worry all the time that their sources might be exposed".

Goodman's QC suggested to the defendant that he knew about phone hacking and had put pressure on his client to use it. "That's not true," Coulson replied. The barrister showed another email sent by his client to Coulson about another royal story which states: "We absolutely know it to be true." How did you know, the QC asked. The defendant again said that this was an example of Goodman's "over-dramatic language" adding: "I'd probably lost the will to live by that point". "It's rather plain language," Spens replied. Another email from Goodman to Coulson quotes what he calls "Harry's exact words". How could he have known them, the barrister asked. "Perhaps he told the friend quoted in the last paragraph," the former editor replied.

The defence QC then moved on to the events that took place after Goodman was arrested and told the court that his client's case was that Coulson had "done everything he could to conceal his own role". The defendant was asked if anyone had told him that the "secret services" were involved in accessing the royal household's voicemails. "I don't believe I was told that but if I was I believe I would have acted differently." The defendant was asked about a meeting held at News International after Goodman's arrest on 11 August 2006. Coulson said he could not recall the meeting but doubted he had stayed for the full four and a half hours it lasted. "I had a paper to edit," he told the court.

The court was then shown a note made by managing editor Stuart Kuttner of a conversation he had with Goodman which states that the hacking involved "SIS" and a meeting with a "serving spook". Coulson said he was sure he would have remembered if he was told that the secret services had been involved and he would have told Goodman "that is the best story you have ever had". Asked by Goodman's lawyer, Coulson denied he had advised the royal editor to plead guilty. "That was not for me to say," he said, and added he had taken no steps to limit the investigation. "The police would go where the police would go," he said. Asked about Goodman's claim that the defendant had told him the News of the World would use its "influence" to ensure he would not go to prison, Coulson said the paper "had a difficult relationship with Iain Blair [then Metropolitan police commissioner] and I did not feel very influential at that time," adding "no other newspaper was investigated in the way we were."

Court the rose for lunch.