James Murdoch ‘told of hacking email’

6 September 2011 Last updated at 08:59 ET

Former News of the World legal manager Tom Crone has told MPs he was “certain” he told James Murdoch about an email which indicated phone hacking at the paper went beyond one rogue reporter.

Mr Crone said the email was discussed and “it was the reason that we had to settle the case”.

In a previous hearing, News Corp bosses Rupert and James Murdoch said they were not told of an email.

The paper’s former editor Colin Myler also told MPs the email was discussed.

The Commons committee has also quizzed former legal director Jon Chapman and human resources director Daniel Cloke in a second round of questions from MPs examining phone hacking.

The discrepancy in the evidence between Mr Crone and Mr Myler and Rupert and James Murdoch hinges on a key document from April 2008 – known as the “for Neville” email.

When it was sent, the News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman had already been jailed for hacking into phones of the royal household – a practice the paper insisted was not more widely used.

‘Authority to settle’

But the “for Neville” email is said to have implied that the NoW’s chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck was also implicated in malpractices.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Mr Crone said: “It was clear evidence that phone-hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman. It was the reason that we had to settle the case. And in order to settle the case we had to explain the case to Mr Murdoch and get his authority to settle.

“So certainly it would certainly have been discussed. I cannot remember the detail of the conversation. And there isn’t a note of it. The conversation lasted for quite a short period, I would think probably less than 15 minutes or about 15 minutes. It was discussed. But exactly what was said I cannot recall.”

It was at that meeting that James Murdoch authorised him to reach a settlement with Gordon Taylor, the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, who was eventually paid £425,000 over the hacking of his phone, the committee heard.

But Mr Crone insisted that there was no “cover-up” by the company, as the email had been provided to them by the Metropolitan Police after it was seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed with Mr Goodman in 2003.

The former legal chief said his priority was to avoid cases being launched by four other individuals whose phones Mulcaire had admitted hacking.

“The imperative or the priority at the time was to settle this case, get rid of it, contain the situation as far as four other litigants were concerned and get on with our business,” he said.

News International chairman James Murdoch told the culture committee earlier this year that he was not aware of the email when he approved an out-of-court settlement with Mr Taylor.

Mr Myler and Mr Crone later released a statement saying they did inform him of the email.

Culture committee chairman John Whittingdale told the BBC last month that after hearing more from the two men, MPs may well choose to recall Mr Murdoch to ask him further questions as well.

Labour MP Tom Watson, who has pursued the issue of phone hacking, has already called for Mr Murdoch to return.

But Mr Murdoch has said he “stands by his testimony” to the committee, in which he said: “If I knew then what we know now we would have taken more action around that and we would have taken more action to get to the bottom of these matters.”

‘Thorough’ review

Giving evidence to MPs earlier on Tuesday, both Mr Chapman and Mr Cloke said they were “surprised” by claims from jailed former News of the World royal correspondent Clive Goodman that phone hacking was widespread.

Mr Goodman, the paper’s former royal editor, sent the letter to Mr Cloke, the then News International group human resources director, saying he had been unfairly dismissed after being jailed for phone hacking in 2007.

Mr Goodman alleged that “other members of staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures” and that “this practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference”.

Mr Cloke told the committee Mr Goodman’s claim surprised not only him, but Mr Myler and Mr Crone: “Tom said that this was a surprise to him, as it was to everybody .”

Mr Chapman defended the email review he carried out in reaction to the letter as a “thorough” and a “careful and diligent exercise” but admitted it was limited in its scope.

He said there was “nothing that indicated reasonable evidence” of voicemail interception, and “no other illegal activity stood out,” insisting that he did not recall at any point thinking there was material that would require the police to be brought in.

But he said it was an “employment related exercise” – not a criminal case – and he was looking for evidence of hacking linked to Clive Goodman’s unfair dismissal appeal.

The Metropolitan Police’s Operation Weeting is investigating claims of phone hacking at News of the World, which was shut down in July after it emerged that the phone of murder victim Milly Dowler had been hacked.

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