The Culture, Media and Sports Committee has heard evidence on the tabloid voicemail hacking scandal. Padraig Reidy reports

Investigative journalist Nick Davies today produced evidence he claimed proved there was more widespread knowledge of telephone hacking at the News of the World than the newspaper had previously acknowledged.

Answering questions at the House of Commons Subcommittee on Culture, Media and Sports, which has reopened its inquiry into the press and privacy after the Guardian’s revelations about the News of the World’s use of voicemail hacking and subsequent financial settlements, Flat Earth News author Davies produced what he said was an email from a junior reporter at the News of the World to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, dating from 2005, featuring a transcript of voice messages taken from the telephones of Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballer’s Association, PFA legal adviser Jo Armstrong, and a third, unnamed person, who Davies claimed was a lawyer known for representing footballers. Davies had redacted the content of the messages, and withheld the name of the junior reporter, saying he did not want to exacerbate the invasion of Taylor and Armstrong’s privacy, or act as a policeman in revealing the reporter.

The email stated: “This is a transcript for Neville”, which Davies took to be a reference to senior News of the World journalist Neville Thurlbeck. Davies said that this suggested awareness of Mulcaire’s activities at a high level. However, he did concede there was no evidence that then editor Andy Coulson, now Director of Communications for the Conservative party, was implicated.

Davies also produced lists of invoices he claims clearly showed that the News of the World made payments specifically for phone-hacking activities.

The News of the World had previously claimed that the collaboration between Glenn Mulcaire and royal correspondent Clive Goodman had been carried out entirely in secret, without the knowledge of anyone at the newspaper.

Earlier, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger had criticised the News of the World for what he said was an aggressive campaign to discredit the Guardian’s story on voicemail hacking.

Rusbridger acknowledged that most newspapers had, at some point, engaged in “dubious practices” and proposed that in future, when in doubt over breaches of privacy, papers should apply tests similar to those drafted by Sir David Omand when discussing security surveillance:

1)There must be integrity of motive; 2) The methods used must be in proportion to the seriousness of the business in hand; 3) There must be proper authority; 4) Recourse to such methods of intrusion must be a last, not a first, recourse; 5) There must be a reasonable prospect of success.

The Culture, Media and Sports Committee will hear evidence from the News of the World and News International next week.