NoW legal chief told editor: ‘Position is very perilous’ in hacking case

Documents showing how the News of the World tried to keep the Gordon Taylor phone-hacking case under wraps were published yesterday by the parliamentary committee investigating the scandal.

Correspondence between the tabloid’s then legal chief, Tom Crone, and editor Colin Myler details their efforts to achieve a “confidential settlement” with the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association in England.

In a memo on 24 May, 2008, Mr Crone advised: “Our position is very perilous.”

Mr Taylor had obtained a “damning e-mail” containing transcripts of his private voicemails, as well as evidence from the Information Commissioner of other illegal activities by NoW journalists, Mr Crone said.

“Amongst the documents from the Information Commissioner is a list of named journalists and a detailed table of data protection infringements between 2001 and 2003 (based upon evidence seized in a raid on another private investigator).

“A number of those names are still with us and some of them have moved to prominent positions on NoW and the Sun.

“Typical infringements are ‘turning around’ car reg and mobile phone numbers (illegal).”

In a subsequent e-mail to solicitor Julian Pike, Mr Crone says Mr Myler was to use the memo “as the basis for his chat with Chief Exec James Murdoch” – suggesting that Mr Murdoch was made aware of the issues at that stage.