Reporter says former NoTW editor Coulson okayed monitoring phones of royal aides
20 March 2014 10:48 PM GMT
Clive Goodman, the ex-royal editor of Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World tabloid, told a London court Coulson had approved a 500 pound weekly payment to a private detective who later hacked phones of staff working for Queen Elizabeth’s grandsons.
Goodman also told the court he had shown Coulson full transcripts of hacked messages and told him how private investigator Glenn Mulcaire could supply the numbers needed to access voicemails. The former reporter, 56, and Mulcaire were both jailed in 2007 for hacking the phones of the senior royal aides. Coulson, 46, who edited the tabloid at the centre of a phone-hacking scandal for four years, has always denied any knowledge of the practice.
He joined Cameron’s office after leaving the newspaper, working for the Conservative leader who became prime minister in May 2010. Coulson resigned in January 2011 due to escalating coverage of the phone-hacking scandal which led Murdoch to close the paper and sent shockwaves through the British establishment.
Goodman told London’s Old Bailey court the deal to monitor the phones of senior aides to Prince William and his brother Harry was agreed at a meeting he had with Coulson at the end of 2005. He said he needed the editor’s approval as he had no budget from which to make the payments. ‘I said that... Glenn Mulcaire had offered to monitor three royal phones for us,’ said Goodman. ‘We could monitor them or he could monitor them for 500 pounds a week. The editor agreed to a two-month trial.’
Goodman said the trial was extended and payments continued on an ad-hoc basis until both he and Mulcaire were arrested in August 2006.
Goodman also told the court he had shown Coulson full transcripts of hacked messages and told him how private investigator Glenn Mulcaire could supply the numbers needed to access voicemails. The former reporter, 56, and Mulcaire were both jailed in 2007 for hacking the phones of the senior royal aides. Coulson, 46, who edited the tabloid at the centre of a phone-hacking scandal for four years, has always denied any knowledge of the practice.
He joined Cameron’s office after leaving the newspaper, working for the Conservative leader who became prime minister in May 2010. Coulson resigned in January 2011 due to escalating coverage of the phone-hacking scandal which led Murdoch to close the paper and sent shockwaves through the British establishment.
Goodman told London’s Old Bailey court the deal to monitor the phones of senior aides to Prince William and his brother Harry was agreed at a meeting he had with Coulson at the end of 2005. He said he needed the editor’s approval as he had no budget from which to make the payments. ‘I said that... Glenn Mulcaire had offered to monitor three royal phones for us,’ said Goodman. ‘We could monitor them or he could monitor them for 500 pounds a week. The editor agreed to a two-month trial.’
Goodman said the trial was extended and payments continued on an ad-hoc basis until both he and Mulcaire were arrested in August 2006.
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