NEWS CORPORATION'S James Murdoch faces being brought back before MPs after questions were raised last night about his declaration that he believed News of the Worldphone-hacking was limited to one rogue reporter when he paid compensation to a victim in 2008.
Last night, the former editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, and long-time News International libel lawyer, Tom Crone, who left the company last week, dramatically insisted Mr Mur-doch's evidence to a Commons inquiry on Tuesday had been "mistaken".
Mr Murdoch signed off on damages and costs of £700,000 to the then Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor a few months after he had taken over as News Corporation’s head in Europe and Asia.
However, documents passed to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee at the Commons revealed the News of the World's former chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, had read transcripts of 35 hacked telephone messages between Mr Taylor and the association's lawyer, Jo Armstrong.
The transcripts, discovered by Mr Taylor’s lawyers, were sent to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire by a junior reporter on the paper in mid-June 2005 with the introduction, “Hello, this is the transcript for Neville.”
In a brief statement, Mr Myler and Mr Crone said: “Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday’s CMS Select Committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch’s recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.
“In fact, we did inform him of the ‘for Neville’ e-mail which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor’s lawyers.”
The declaration could be significant if the two can prove it, since Mr Murdoch’s declaration he believed then-royal correspondent Clive Goodman was the only reporter guilty of hacking would not then stand up, threatening his position in the multi-billion pound company.
Last night, News Corporation, believed to have been taken by surprise by Mr Myler and Mr Crone’s action, issued a one-line statement, declaring that: “James Murdoch stands by his testimony to the select committee.” The chairman of the committee, Conservative MP John Whittingdale, who said he was “astonished” by the development, announced he would write immediately to Mr Murdoch seeking clarification, giving him a week to reply.
However, the brief Myler/Crone statement leaves questions unanswered, since Mr Crone, who departed from News International last week after 20 years' service, had previously told the committee the News of the Worldinternal inquiry in 2007 found no evidence that others were involved.
“I tasked myself with finding out what exactly had happened; what was known, who knew what other documents there might be. At no stage during their investigation or our investigation did any evidence arise that the problem of accessing by our reporters, or complicity of accessing by our reporters, went beyond the Goodman/Mulcaire situation,” he told the committee in 2009.
Meanwhile, the publisher of the Daily and Sunday Mirrorhas warned MPs not to repeat "erroneous and inaccurate" accusations that the two tabloids had hacked voicemail messages, following a claim made at Tuesday's committee hearing.
Conservative MP Louise Mensch said the diaries of former Mirror editor Piers Morgan confirmed the tabloid had hacked messages, though a reading of the book shows he mentioned only that voicemails could be easily hacked.
The officer heading the Metropolitan Police's investigation into the News of the World, has meanwhile sought access to the files built up by the UK Information Commissioner in its 2003 investigation into "blagging" – the gathering of confidential information by subterfuge.
The commissioner's report found 4,000 requests from 305 journalists and more than 30 publications to a private investigator to get confidential personal information, such as ex-directory phone numbers and driving licence details. The News of the Worldwas fifth on the list.