The NoW’s former legal manager Tom Crone says he showed James Murdoch an email containing transcripts of conversations about phone hacking which proved the practice went beyond a “rogue” reporter.
Mr Crone told the Leveson inquiry today that he brought a copy of the “For Neville” email to a meeting with James Murdoch and the News of the World‘s then editor, Colin Myler on 10 June, 2008.
The infamous email, containing a transcript of illegally intercepted voicemail messages, was apparently intended for Neville Thurlbeck, the Sunday tabloid’s chief reporter.
Mr Crone also said he told Mr Murdoch at the meeting that there was “direct and hard evidence” to show that phone hacking extended beyond a single reporter.
Regarding the emails, Mr Crone said: “I cannot remember whether they were passed across the table to him, but I am pretty sure I held up the front page of the email.
“I am also pretty sure that he already knew about it – in terms of it had been described to him already, which I think the other documents that have come out suggest anyway.”
Mr Murdoch has previously insisted that he was not shown the email or told that it proved phone hacking was more widespread at the News of the World than previously thought.
But the “For Neville” email apparently contradicts News International’s public stance that phone hacking at the paper was restricted to one reporter.
I cannot remember whether they were passed across the table to him, but I am pretty sure I held up the front page of the email. Tom Crone
Mr Crone said that the email was referred to as the “damning email” and the possible repercussions were discussed at the meeting, namely that phone hacking was more widespread at the paper than the management originally thought.
Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquest, asked Mr Crone if News International’s “rogue reporter” defence was one that he personally did not believe, to which he replied: “Correct”.
“What was relayed to Mr Murdoch was that this document clearly was direct and hard evidence of that being the case,” he added.
Regarding the publication of Kate McCann’s diaries, Mr Crone said he understood that a McCann family representative had given permission to publish.
Mrs McCann last month told the inquiry that she felt “violated” when she saw her private diary entries in the paper on 14 September 2008.
However, Mr Crone said today: “My understanding was that the representative of the McCanns had given the OK, the permission to the head of the newsdesk at the News of the World, to run the diaries or extracts from the diaries.”
Speaking after Mr Crone, Colin Myler, former News of the World editor, agreed that he thought permission had been granted, adding that he would not have published the diaries if he thought it had not been approved by the McCanns.