Murdoch's UK arm in phone-hacking cover-up, ex-reporter says

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) – A former tabloid reporter told a London court on Wednesday that Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, News International (NI), had been involved in a conspiracy to cover up phone-hacking and that he had lied about his own role to toe “the company line”.

Dan Evans said he had hacked into the voicemails of dozens of celebrities during his time at Murdoch’s News of the World, and had lied about it both to police and in a civil legal case as part of a widespread company cover-up.

However, the lawyer for Andy Coulson, the paper’s former editor and Prime Minister David Cameron’s ex-media chief, suggested Evans was only making the allegations about a conspiracy as part of a deal with police to avoid prosecution.

Coulson is on trial accused of conspiring to intercept voicemails and authorising illegal payments to public officials.

He has denied any knowledge of hacking and says he could not be expected to know the source of every story in his paper.

“As far as I was concerned, it (phone-hacking) was so widely known at the paper and covered up so extensively, there was a widespread conspiracy within the organisation,” Evans told London’s Old Bailey Court.

Evans was arrested in August 2011, a month after Murdoch closed the News of the World amid public anger at revelations of phone-hacking which prompted Cameron to order a broad public inquiry into press ethics.

He has admitted illegally listening in to the voicemails of celebrities, including James Bond actor Daniel Craig, in an effort to find material for stories.

He told the court on Tuesday he had stopped hacking after the arrest of the paper’s royal editor Clive Goodman in 2006 but had resumed three years later when he tried to access the voicemail of interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

Hoppen was alerted to the failed hack and sued the paper.

Under tetchy cross-examination from Timothy Langdale, Coulson’s counsel, Evans admitted that he had lied about trying to hack Hoppen’s phone.

He confirmed that when lawyers for News International – Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm – asked him about Hoppen’s claim, he had blamed “sticky keys” on his phone for what had happened. The firm’s lawyers had taken this and used it in the subsequent civil legal proceedings brought by Hoppen.

Asked why he had agreed to their doing that, Evans said: “I was toeing the line, the party line, the company line.”

By late 2011, Evans was considering approaching the police about seeking immunity but his lies about the Hoppen affair were a stumbling block, Langdale told the jury.

Evans said: “I was a very frightened man at the time. I was one person caught between the prime minister, caught between the tabloid world, caught between highly paid lawyers. I didn’t know what to do. I’m very sorry for lying at the time.”

During 2012, Langdale said, there were lengthy conversations between Evans’ lawyers and the police who he said would only give immunity if he could bring in the involvement of “people at senior levels”.

“You were ready to do just about anything to get … immunity,” Langdale said to him.

“SWEEPING STATEMENTS”

Earlier Evans admitted that he was paraphrasing comments by Coulson when he told the court on Tuesday that the former editor had said “brilliant” after listening to a hacked phone call Evans played to him.

“The word came out of my mouth as I was trying to explain the general sense of him being very happy about what had been produced from him,” Evans said.

Evans also agreed that his claim that phone-hacking was discussed daily in editorial conference meetings led by Coulson and which he did not attend himself was based on one occasion when a colleague had told him it had been raised.

“Another indication that you are prone to make sweeping statements that are not actually based on fact,” Langdale said.

Evans, the fourth News of the World journalist to have admitted phone-hacking charges, replied: “That’s not correct.”

Coulson has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to intercept voicemails and authorising illegal payments to public officials.

Six others, including Rebekah Brooks, the former head of Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, are also on trial and deny all charges.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Murdoch's UK arm in phone-hacking cover-up, ex-reporter says