Former News of the World lawyer Tom Crone has issued a statement this evening in response to James Murdoch’s claim that he and former News of the World editor Colin Myler misled Parliament.
Under questioning from MPs today, News International boss Murdoch rounded on Crone and Myler and said they had misled Parliament by saying that they had told Murdoch in June 2008 about the existence of an email which proved voicemail hacking was more widespread at the News of the World.
Crone said in a statement: “It is regrettable, but I can perfectly understand why James Murdoch felt the need to discredit Colin Myler and myself.
“The simple truth is that he was told by us in 2008 about the damning email and what it meant in terms of wider News of the World involvement.
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“It seems he now accepts he was told of the email, of the fact that it contained transcripts of voicemail interceptions and that those interceptions were authorised by the News of the World. Perhaps Mr Murdoch could explain who he thought was doing the authorising at the News of the World? At best, his evidence on this matter was disingenuous.
“For the record, I did not ‘mislead the committee’ about the evidence being confined to a ‘single rogue reporter’. If anyone cares to read the full answer I gave to Q1339 during the 2009 evidence to the CMS select committee, they will see that I clearly accepted the ‘for Neville’ email meant ‘that the problem of accessing by our reporters, or complicity of accessing by our reporters, went beyond the Goodman/Mulcaire situation’.”
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