Britain: Ex-Editor Says He Was Told to Take Blame for Phone Hacking
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Version 0 of 1. The former royal editor at the now-defunct tabloid News of the World told a London court on Wednesday that senior officials of News International, Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper division, put pressure on him to take responsibility for phone hacking to avoid implicating others. The former editor, Clive Goodman, went to prison in 2007 for illegally accessing the voicemails of cellphones belonging to senior aides to Britain’s royal family. He said Wednesday in court that News International executives tried to buy his silence and wanted him to be cast as a “lone wolf.” After the phone hacking was made public in 2007, News International officials said publicly and in Parliament that the practice had been limited to Mr. Goodman and a private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, who worked for the paper. Rebekah Brooks, who had become News International’s chief executive, and Andy Coulson, who later was appointed Prime Minister David Cameron’s media chief, are now on trial, accused of conspiracy to hack phones. |