The former editor of the News of the World revealed he was afraid there “could have been bombs under newsroom floor” when he joined the tabloid after the 2006 phone hacking scandal.
Colin Myler told the Leveson Inquiry today he “didn’t know where they [the bombs] were or when they were going to go off”.
He revealed he “always had some discomfort” upon becoming editor in 2007, shortly after the paper’s Royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire had been jailed for hacking phones of members of the Royal family.
“There was no appetite to go back to that place,” Myler said.
He echoed Tom Crone’s testimony that News International’s settlement with PFA boss Gordon Taylor over a phone hacking claim did not suggest a “culture of cover-up” at the company. Myler argued it was “not wrong or unreasonable” for a company to protect its reputation, noting that NI was “dealing with a very difficult negotiation” and that Taylor “wanted £1 million or to go to trial”.
“I remember being told he wanted to humiliate the paper,” Myler said.
He added that “nobody was very keen” on a trial following the Goodman-Mulcaire convictions.
Referring to the 10 June 2008 meeting with Crone and News Corp CEO James Murdoch to settle the Taylor claim, Myler said he “didn’t recall” whether Crone had shown Murdoch the front page of the “damning email” that implicated other reporters in phone hacking. But he added he had “no reason to disbelieve” Crone’s testimony.
Myler conceded that the email, also known as the ‘for Neville’ email (referring to former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck) was evidence that the paper’s previous defence of hacking being limited to “one rogue reporter” was not sustainable.
Meanwhile he said he did not recollect the 3 June 2008 opinion of the company’s leading counsel that there was a “culture of illegal infrmation access” at the tabloid. “That would hit you absolutely between the eyes,” Lord Justice Leveson responded.
Myler reiterated his main recollection was the ‘for Neville’ email, which he said was “fatal” to the company’s case.
Taylor was eventually paid over £700,000 by News International in 2008.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson.
