Glenn Mulcaire said he had not acted 'unilaterally' when he intercepted voicemails. Photograph: John Stillwell/PAThe private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal has denied suggestions he acted without orders from the newspaper.
In an attack on News International, Glenn Mulcaire said he was "effectively employed" by the tabloid publisher from 2002 as a private investigator and had not acted "unilaterally" when he intercepted voicemails. "As an employee he acted on the instructions of others," a statement issued by his lawyers said.
His comments came 24 hours after it emerged that Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was abducted and murdered in 2000, learned Mulcaire may have targeted her phone.
Hours after his statement, Sara Payne made her first public comments, saying she was "very distressed and upset" that details relating to her may have been found in Mulcaire's files.
"I can confirm reports that I was given a phone by the campaign team [for the NoW's Sarah's Law campaign] and that my voicemail was only activated after my first aneurysm," she said. This relates to a report on Thursday that she had not turned her voicemail on the phone until 2009, the year of her first aneurysm. She was given the phone by NoW in 2000.
In a statement that indicated she still appreciated her work on Sarah's Law with the NoW, she said: "Notwithstanding the bad apples involved here, my faith remains solidly behind all the good people who have supported me over the last 11 years. I will never lose my faith in them. My way would be to challenge the bad apples head-on, learn from the facts of the matter, and be a proactive part of stopping this from happening again."
Brooks said the allegations about Payne were "abhorrent", and that it was "unthinkable" "anyone on the newspaper knew Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mulcaire".
The private investigator's statement challenges News International's central defence since Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, were jailed in 2007 for hacking into Prince William's phone. The company claimed that one "rogue reporter" was responsible.
Mulcaire's statement from his lawyers said: "There were also occasions when he [Mulcaire] understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes. Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more."
His statement focuses attention back on News International executives, who face another grilling by MPs on the Commons culture select committee.
James Murdoch is likely to be summoned to appear before MPs for a second time after Colin Myler, the NoW's former editor, and Tom Crone, the paper's former head of legal affairs, challenged his evidence to the select committee on 19 July.
Crone and Myler accused Murdoch of being "mistaken" when he told the committee that he had no knowledge of an email that implicated a member of the News of the World staff in Mulcaire's activities.
The pair said they had shown Murdoch the so-called "for Neville" email, which raised the possibility that the paper's former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck knew about phone hacking at the time that the BSkyB chairman approved payments to victims of phone hacking. Murdoch said earlier this month that he did not have a "complete picture" when he approved the payments.
Committee chair John Whittingdale, who said he wanted to hear from the pair and James Murdoch in writing first, is expected to summon them next month. He would also be asking Myler and Crone to exlain why they now think the "for Neville" email is so significant after they played down its significance when they appeared before the committee in July 2009.
"Tom Crone and Colin Myler … told us they had discovered no evidence suggesting that anybody else beyond Clive Goodman had been involved," Whittingdale said. "We are now told, we understand from the statement they issued to the media, that they had drawn James Murdoch's attention to the significance of the 'for Neville' email. It appeared, when they came before us, that they did not regard that it was significant. But clearly they are now suggesting it is."
The committee is also writing to Jon Chapman, a former director of legal affairs at News International, who challenged Rupert Murdoch's claim to the culture committee that he had a copy of a report "for a number of years" which showed evidence of illegality.
Chapman said he was responsible for corporate and legal matters at News International and did not have responsibility for dealing with allegations about phone hacking.
Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to charges of phone interception and is currently appealing against a High Court order that would force him to give more information about hacking to his alleged victims. Glenn Mulcaire had claimed the privilege of self-incrimination but lost a High Court battle against comedian Steve Coogan and football pundit Andy Gray.
There is now a prospect that this appeal against the order arising from this case is abandoned after News International announced it was ceasing to cover Mulcaire's legal fees with "immediate effect".
Mulcaire's solictors wrote to News International earlier this week warning the publisher they were still legally liable to indemnify him against legal costs until the appeal case was resolved.
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