Phone hacking: Coulson ‘listened to hacked voicemails’
By politics.co.uk staff
Andy Coulson actually listened to intercepted voicemail messages during his editorship of the News of the World, a report has alleged.
An unnamed senior source is quoted by the Channel 4 programme Dispatches as claiming Mr Coulson, now director of communications in Downing Street, was very much aware of the culture of phone hacking at the paper.
It is also claimed that Mr Coulson – who has consistently insisted that he had no knowledge whatsoever of the practice – listened to voicemails intercepted by journalists working under him.
The source indicated Mr Coulson listened to the messages to guarantee the accuracy of the stories going in the newspaper.
The programme is set to be aired tomorrow and breathes new life into the long-running phone hacking saga at a particularly embarrassing time for the Conservatives during their conference in Birmingham.
The row was reignited by a New York Times report that implicated Mr Coulson as being aware of the practice that led to the imprisonment of the News of the World’s royal reporter Clive Goodman.
David Cameron has repeatedly batted away questions over Mr Coulson’s role, arguing that he should be given “a second chance”.
