‘I told James Murdoch of Gordon Taylor hacking email’

Mr Murdoch Jr, who was then chief executive of NoW publishers News International, has previously told the Commons Culture Committee he was not aware of the notorious “For Neville” document, which blew apart the company’s stance that hacking was the fault of a single rogue reporter - former royal correspondent Clive Goodman.

Former NGN legal manager Tom Crone today told the committee he informed Mr Murdoch about the document - a transcript of hacked private information about Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor - in a 15-minute meeting, also attended by then NoW editor Colin Myler in 2008.

However, he said he could not remember whether he had shown him a copy of the email.

It was at that meeting that James Murdoch authorised him to reach a settlement with Mr Taylor, who was eventually paid £425,000, the committee heard.

But Mr Crone insisted that there was no “cover-up” by the company, as the email had been provided to them by the Metropolitan Police after it was seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed with Goodman in 2003 for hacking into the phone messages of members of the royal household.

A confidentiality clause included in the settlement was insisted upon by Mr Taylor’s lawyers to avoid sensitive information about his personal life becoming public, said Mr Crone.

In a bruising clash with committee member Tom Watson - the Labour MP who has led the charge over phone-hacking - Mr Crone denied that Mr Murdoch demanded a confidentiality clause and authorised the large financial settlement in order to prevent the exposure of “widespread criminality” at the News of the World.

The former NGN legal chief said his priority was to avoid cases being launched by four other individuals whose phones Mulcaire had admitted hacking.

“The imperative or the priority at the time was to settle this case, get rid of it, contain the situation as far as four other litigants were concerned and get on with our business,” said Mr Crone.

Recalling the emergence of the “For Neville” document - widely suspected to be intended for then NoW chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck - Mr Crone said: “It was clear evidence that phone-hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman.

“It was the reason we had to settle the case and in order to settle the case, we had to explain the case to Mr Murdoch and get his authority to settle, so clearly it was discussed.

“I can’t remember the conversation and there isn’t a note of it. The conversation lasted about 15 minutes. It was discussed, but exactly what was said I can’t remember.”

Mr Murdoch authorised him to reach a settlement with Mr Taylor’s lawyers, but he did not recall the NI chief executive naming a specific figure for the payout, said Mr Crone.

If a payment of £425,000 could prevent the launch of four other potentially expensive legal cases, then that would be “a good course of action from my point of view”, said Mr Crone.

“If we had to pay way over the odds with Mr Taylor, especially with a confidentiality clause which he asked for, then that is a good course of action,” he told the committee.

Mr Myler confirmed Mr Crone’s recollection that the two of them went to Mr Murdoch to tell him about the existence of the document and its implications for Mr Taylor’s claim.

Mr Crone denied misleading the committee during a previous appearance in 2009 about the significance of the “For Neville” email or about the question of whether News International demanded confidentiality over the Taylor settlement.

“We did not underestimate or mislead you in any way whatsoever about the importance of that email,” Mr Crone told committee chairman John Whittingdale.

After demanding that he read out a transcript of his 2009 evidence in which he denied that the company used the settlement in the hope of maintaining secrecy over phone-hacking, Mr Watson asked Mr Crone: “Are you misleading us now or did you mislead us in 2009?”

Mr Crone replied that there was “a difference between secrecy and confidentiality”.

In response to the former NGN legal chief’s repeated claims that he could not remember details of the phone-hacking saga, Mr Watson asked in a scathing tone: “Are you not familiar with the Taylor case, Mr Crone?”

Mr Crone - who quit as NGN legal chief earlier this year amid the furore over the phone-hacking scandal - replied that he had not looked at the Taylor file since last giving evidence to the committee two years ago.

Under close questioning from the committee, Mr Crone denied having promised Mr Goodman that he would keep his job if he avoided implicating the company in any wrong-doing in relation to phone-hacking.

It was Andy Coulson - who was editor of the Sunday tabloid at the time of Goodman’s crimes and went on to serve as David Cameron’s director of communications at 10 Downing Street - who sought to ensure that the reporter was not sacked, he said.

“Mr Coulson had conversations with me on two or three occasions in which he said if Clive is guilty and sentenced, when he has served his sentence Mr Coulson was hoping that he could persuade the company that Clive Goodman could come back and work for the company, albeit not in a reporter’s capacity,” said Mr Crone.

“When I spoke to Clive... I relayed that to him.”

Mr Crone said he thought it would be possible to find a place for Goodman - possibly as a sub-editor - and was “annoyed” when the company wrote to Goodman after his sentencing to tell him he was being summarily dismissed.

He said he felt “quite sorry for Clive”, who had been “pessimistic and depressed and worried about his family and his future”.

Mr Crone defended the company’s decision to pay for Mr Goodman’s legal defence as “the proper, decent and correct thing to do”.

But he said he had nothing to do with the decision to continue to pay him a salary during his jail sentence or to give him a £240,000 pay-off after his dismissal.

Mr Watson told him that his answers suggested that he did not regard Goodman’s eavesdropping activities as “gross misconduct”.

“You thought it was a reporter’s job at the News of the World,” said the Labour MP. “As far as you were concerned, the whole problem was that he was caught.

“That’s why you told Goodman he could have his job back if he didn’t implicate the newspaper... You promised him his job in order to suppress evidence of criminality at the News of the World and that is why James Murdoch sanctioned the payment to Gordon Taylor and why you agreed to pay Glenn Mulcaire’s legal fees.”

Mr Crone responded that there was “no truth at all” in Mr Watson’s claims.

Mr Crone was asked whether it was made clear to Mr Murdoch that the “For Neville” email indicated that phone-hacking must have involved more than just one or two reporters at the News of the World.

He replied: “I conveyed to the meeting that a transcript of Gordon Taylor voicemails had passed through our office and back to Glenn Mulcaire. That is what was relayed to Mr Murdoch.

“The difference this document made was that it implicated the News of the World in Gordon Taylor without any doubt at all, because it passed through our office.

“It proved that it had gone through the computer system of a junior reporter. The obvious inference we could draw from that is that others knew about it, because the junior reporter didn’t do it off his own bat.”

Mr Crone stressed that, although the name “Neville” was on the document, Mr Thurlbeck insisted he knew nothing about it.

Committee member Louise Mensch told Mr Crone his evidence on what James Murdoch knew about the email was “clear as mud”.

The former NI chief executive had been “crystal clear” in his evidence to the committee earlier this year that he was not made aware that there was any wider involvement in phone-hacking by other reporters.

“Your evidence has been clear as mud,” said Mrs Mensch. “There’s no clarity whatsoever that he was made aware that there was wider involvement at the News of the World.

“The meeting took 15 minutes, there was no subsequent review at the paper, no subsequent action. Nobody said ‘Hey, this is widespread’.

“If James Murdoch was sitting here, wouldn’t he be able to say ‘I’ve been totally clear, they are completely muddled ... I stand by my testimony’.”

But Mr Crone said it was “absolutely inconceivable” that it had not been explained to Mr Murdoch that the email proved the News of the World was implicated in the Taylor hacking.

As Mr Murdoch was told that the email had been prepared by a junior reporter, it should have been “quite clear” to him that the activities went wider, he told the committee.

“Since he gave us the authority we were asking for, I would take it that he understood for the first time and realised that the News of the World was involved and that involvement went beyond Clive Goodman and on that basis he authorised the settlement,” Mr Crone said.

Mr Crone and Mr Myler were both accused by MPs of being vague in their recollection of the meeting and pressed to give more clarity about what was said.

The former legal manager said that in the meeting with Mr Murdoch “it was explained to him what this document was and what it meant”.

“I can’t tell you whether on his part there was ambiguity, I can only tell you that I explained that this document meant that there was a wider News of the World involvement,” he said.

Mr Myler was repeatedly pressed to say whether it was made “absolutely clear” to Mr Murdoch that other journalists were involved.

“I’m sorry but I am clear,” he said. “There was no ambiguity about the significance of that document and what options were there for the company to take.”

He went on: “Mr Murdoch was the chief executive of the company. He’s experienced. I am experienced in what I do, Mr Crone is experienced as a legal manager. I think everybody perfectly understood the seriousness and the significance of what we were discussing.”

He said he did not find it “extraordinary” that he had no further discussions with Mr Murdoch or others about the email.

“Responsibility for the corporate governance of a company goes beyond my pay grade,” he said.

“An editor’s life is a bit like a football manager’s job: you stay when you perform; and you go when you don’t. It is black and it is white.

“If anybody was not happy with my performance, editorially, dealing with the staff, the budgets, any other issues, they would have told me.”

Mr Myler said he was “very comfortable” with his actions after taking over as editor - insisting he had no reason to doubt at that time that the Scotland Yard inquiry had been thorough.

He said he had sat down with individuals named by Mr Goodman as involved in hacking and they “denied every single one” of his allegations.

There was no evidence available to him at that time to back the claims, he said.