LONDON - Andy Coulson, the former editor of News Corp.’s News of the World, said Tuesday that he was aware phone hacking existed in “vague terms,” as he denied any knowledge of the interception of a murdered schoolgirl’s messages that led to the closure of the tabloid nearly a decade later.
Coulson, testifying for a second day at the London trial over purported wrongdoing at the publisher’s British tabloids, said he wasn’t aware of a plan by journalists to hack the phone of Milly Dowler, 13, in 2002.
“I was aware of it in very vague terms of phone hacking in 2002,” said Coulson, who later became a media adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron. “It was in the ether” and was “gossiped about, maybe.” He also said he didn’t know that accessing voice mails was a crime in 2002.
Front Section, Pages 5 on 04/16/2014