View all newsletters
Sign up for our free email newsletters

Fighting for quality news media in the digital age.

  1. Publishers
  2. National Newspapers
April 25, 2014updated 28 Apr 2014 12:47pm

Andy Coulson asked why he did not tell police what he knew about Dowler and Blunkett voicemails

By PA Mediapoint

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson denied that he "turned a blind eye" to the hacking of a voicemail in which David Blunkett declared his love for Spectator publisher Kimberly Fortier in 2004.

Coulson earlier told the jury it was the one and only time he heard about phone-hacking during his time at the paper, and he was asked why he never inquired of chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck where he got the taped phone message when he first rang him on holiday in Italy to tell him about it.

Andrew Edis QC said: "There's only one reason why you would not ask him and that's because you already knew Neville had Mulcaire hacking voicemails."

Coulson said: "That's not true."

Edis went on: "Is it that you did not really want to know about the phone hacking Neville Thurlbeck had done and you've got to assume he was doing it himself because you always denied you knew about Glenn Mulcaire?"

Coulson said: "I did not."

Edis asked: "Is it because you would rather not know? Ask no questions… Turning a blind eye," and Coulson said: "I accept that I failed.

Content from our partners
MHP Group's 30 To Watch awards for young journalists open for entries
How PA Media is helping newspapers make the digital transition
Publishing on the open web is broken, how generative AI could help fix it

"I don't think I turned a blind eye – to turn a blind eye, you would have to have some knowledge. What I'm saying is it was a mistake, a bad mistake."

Edis: "If Neville Thurlbeck had told you he had robbed a bank, you would not tell him to stop. Telling him to stop was not addressing the problem because it's something he has already done."

Coulson: "I was concerned that it stopped and that was the instruction I gave to him."

He was also questioned about why, when he was arrested in July 2011, he never told police his version of events surrounding the Milly Dowler and David Blunkett stories, which came from hacking, and his authorisation of payments to convicted hacker Glenn Mulcaire.

Edis said: "What you intended to achieve was this – you avoided making any admission about David Blunkett and Milly Dowler, hoping they would never be able to prove it."

Coulson replied: "I decided that the best thing for me to do was to follow the advice of my solicitor."

The lawyer pressed: "In the years that followed, you have appreciated the evidence you knew about the hacking of Mr Blunkett before you went to see him is overwhelming so you had to make the admission."

Coulson said: "No. I have chosen to explain what happened in relation to Mr Blunkett."

Edis also asked for an explanation for the lack of notes from the time, saying: "There is not a single notebook in existence from your time at the News of the World concerning these things I have been asking about.

"Are there any notebooks of yours in existence, Mr Coulson?" to which Coulson replied that he had some from his political career but tended to email himself notes rather than write in books.

After he resigned, he said his personal assistant dropped off belongings, including a punchbag which hung in his office, but he could not recall if there were any notebooks.

Earlier, the court heard that when he resigned over former royal editor Clive Goodman's phone-hacking in 2007, he agreed a leaving package of £600,000.

The same day his departure was announced, Goodman was jailed, with private investigator Mulcaire, making him "effectively unemployable", his lawyer David Spens QC said.

The defendant said the agreement he made was for two years' pay plus a month for every year served. He added: "I did not consider that unusual."

Coulson, 46, and Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, deny conspiring with others to hack phones. They also deny separate charges of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office. All seven defendants deny the charges against them.

Topics in this article : , ,

Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog

Select and enter your email address Weekly insight into the big strategic issues affecting the future of the news industry. Essential reading for media leaders every Thursday. Your morning brew of news about the world of news from Press Gazette and elsewhere in the media. Sent at around 10am UK time. Our weekly does of strategic insight about the future of news media aimed at US readers. A fortnightly update from the front-line of news and advertising. Aimed at marketers and those involved in the advertising industry.
  • Business owner/co-owner
  • CEO
  • COO
  • CFO
  • CTO
  • Chairperson
  • Non-Exec Director
  • Other C-Suite
  • Managing Director
  • President/Partner
  • Senior Executive/SVP or Corporate VP or equivalent
  • Director or equivalent
  • Group or Senior Manager
  • Head of Department/Function
  • Manager
  • Non-manager
  • Retired
  • Other
Visit our privacy Policy for more information about our services, how New Statesman Media Group may use, process and share your personal data, including information on your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications.
Thank you

Thanks for subscribing.

Websites in our network