Reporter who blew the whistle on phone hacking found dead

Published on Monday 18 July 2011 20:42

SEAN Hoare, a former News of the World reporter, turned whistleblower after he was dismissed from the tabloid.

He was the first journalist to publicly claim that Andy Coulson, then editor of the newspaper, "encouraged" staff to hack into phones and was fully aware of the practice, which he said was "endemic".

Hoare, who was found dead at his home in Watford yesterday in circumstances that the police described as unexplained but not suspicious, told the New York Times that Coulson encouraged staff at the NoW to hack into the phones of celebrities to get stories. Later, he told the BBC that he was personally asked by Coulson to intercept phone calls.

When Coulson insisted that he knew nothing about phone hacking when he was editor, Hoare said that was "a lie, it is simply a lie".

Speaking to the NYT as part of the newspaper's investigation into hacking, Hoare said that he first worked with Coulson at the Sun. He said he let Coulson hear recordings of messages retrieved through phone hacking. "He actively encouraged me to do it," Hoare said.

Coulson denied the claims, saying that he had "never condoned the use of phone hacking, and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone hacking took place".

Last September, Hoare was interviewed under caution by police officers over the allegations against Coulson, his former friend who was then director of communications at 10 Downing Street.

Last week, as the phone scandal mounted, Hoare spoke again to the NYT, explaining how reporters used police technology and mobile phone signals to locate people, in exchange for payments that were made to police officers. He said journalists used a technique called "pinging" that measured the distance between mobile handsets and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

Hoare was dismissed by the NoW after admitting drink and drug problems. Yesterday a neighbour, who did not want to be named, said Mr Hoare struggled with alcohol abuse, and he had looked increasingly unwell in recent weeks.

The man said he knew the former journalist quite well because Mr Hoare would talk to him about his problems. He said the reporter was "paranoid" about people seeing him, and he was fearful of the police and the government.

Speaking outside the block of flats that Mr Hoare moved into in November 2009, the neighbour said: "He talked about all sorts of problems that he had in his life. A lot of it was alcohol-related. His passage through life has not been an easy one. It's really, really sad news. It's a shame."

Asked if he ever spoke about the Sunday tabloid, the man said: "Yes, he did. He talked a lot, but we never knew if he was telling the truth."

The neighbour said: "He said he was in trouble and he was worried about people coming to get him."

Describing Mr Hoare as a "fantasist", the neighbour said: "A lot of the time we didn't know what to believe."

The neighbour said that Mr Hoare lived in the first-floor apartment of the modern block in Watford, and his balcony overlooked the front entrance.

He said he had recently suffered a fall and had started to look "jaundiced".

Meanwhile, a former senior NoW journalist was carrying out potentially sensitive work for Scotland Yard while employed by the paper, it was disclosed last night.

Channel 4 News reported that Alex Marunchak had been employed by the Metropolitan Police as a Ukrainian language interpreter with access to highly-sensitive police information.

In a statement, Scotland Yard confirmed that he had been on the Met's list of interpreters - providing interpretation and translation services for victims, witnesses and suspects who do not speak English - between 1980 and 2000.

It acknowledged that his employment "may cause concern", adding that some professions may be "incompatible" with such a sensitive job.