Clive Goodman denies he stole cash from News of the World

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/20/clive-goodman-news-of-the-world-steal-denial

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The former royal editor of the News of the World denied colluding with the paper's specialist phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire to steal money from the paper, as he continued to give evidence in the phone-hacking trial.

Questioned by the barrister representing Andy Coulson, Clive Goodman said that each week he would collect £500 from the office cashier and then meet Mulcaire somewhere near the office, quite often in his car, to hand it over.

Timothy Langdale QC, acting for Coulson, asked whether he had ever paid money directly into Mulcaire's bank account.

Goodman said he did not recall that.

"Had you come to some arrangement with Mr Mulcaire about getting some of the proceeds of the Alexander project for yourself?"

Goodman replied: "That's untrue."

Goodman has told an Old Bailey jury that in October 2005 Coulson, the then editor of the tabloid, personally agreed to pay Mulcaire £500 a week in cash to "monitor" the phones of three members of the royal household. The payments were to be recorded under a false name, David Alexander, with a false address, he said.

Langdale also asked Goodman to explain why it was that for a 28-month period when he was regularly claiming cash for three other anonymous sources, his personal account at Lloyds Bank showed no record of his withdrawing any cash for himself.

Goodman replied that this coincided with his getting married and having his first child. "I lived a much more quiet life because things had changed." He said he had spent less and got cash back when he made payments at the supermarket or the garage.

Langdale asked him: "Did you keep for yourself any of the money that you got from the News of the World?"

"No. I did not," he replied.

Langdale asked if it was a coincidence payments to all three anonymous sources ended in March and April 2006, when the newspaper introduced tighter rules on cash payments. Goodman said he did not know: "I'm sorry. I don't have an answer for you."

Langdale asked if it was a coincidence that he had resumed drawing cash from his Lloyds account in June 2006. Goodman replied: "You are talking about events that are two months apart so I don't see the connection."

Questioned about a story which he had written about minor injuries sustained by Prince Harry, Goodman told the jury that the information had come from a voicemail which had been hacked from the mobile phone of the prince's personal secretary, Helen Asprey.

Langdale then asked him why it was that a schedule of his payments to contributors showed that for the same story, he had claimed £700 in cash for an anonymous source recorded internally under the alias Ian Anderson. Goodman has told the jury that Anderson was a freelance journalist.

Goodman replied that the Anderson alias was sometimes used to pay other contributors and that, on this occasion, Mulcaire's handler, the assistant editor, Greg Miskiw, thought Mulcaire should be given something in addition to his regular payment of £2,000 a week because the hack was "above and beyond his duties."

Langdale said: "How can it possibly be above and beyond a hacker's duties to hack Helen Asprey's phone?"

"You'd have to ask Greg," replied Goodman.

Langdale suggested that his answer was a fiction: "This was a device where you could get £700 out of the News of the World in cash when in fact the source of the story was a hacked voicemail message."

"No. That's not true."

Langdale asked why Goodman had authorised five cash payments for up to £650 for another anonymous source, recorded internally with the alias Alec Hall, for information which, the court heard, had already appeared in other newspapers or magazines. Goodman said that Hall was a reporter working for another newspaper, which would not be interested in these particular stories, and that he was paying Hall for spotting and packaging the information. "It's the sort of thing that is done all the time,"he added.

Goodman and Coulson deny conspiring to commit misconduct in public office. Coulson also denies conspiring with Goodman and others to intercept communications.

The trial continues.