LONDON: Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson emailed a senior journalist at the disgraced tabloid ordering him to “do” a celebrity’s phone, the trial over Britain’s phone hacking scandal heard Friday.
Coulson, who later became Prime Minister David Cameron’s media chief, denies conspiring to illegally access celebrities’ voicemail messages in a scandal that forced tycoon Rupert Murdoch to shut the paper in 2011.
The trial heard Thursday that Coulson had been having an affair with fellow defendant Rebekah Brooks, his predecessor as editor and a close Murdoch confidante, for much of the time the pair are accused of involvement in hacking.
Brooks and Coulson, both 45, are among eight defendants denying charges in the high-profile trial at London’s Old Bailey court.
On day three of his opening statement, prosecutor Andrew Edis said Coulson, as editor between 2003 and 2007, must have known his journalists were routinely hacking phones to glean stories for a tabloid that prided itself on its celebrity scoops.
“Does he know about phone hacking? He says he doesn’t. We say: ‘Oh yes, he did’,” Edis told the jury.
The court heard that in May 2006 the paper was planning a story about television personality Calum Best, the son of late Manchester United football star George Best.
Coulson had emailed Ian Edmondson, the tabloid’s former head of news who is also on trial, and instructed him: “Do his phone,” the prosecutor said.
Edis told the jury of nine women and three men that they would have to decide what that meant.
Prince Harry, the youngest son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, was the target of a successful hacking operation by the paper in 2005, the prosecutor said. — AFP