Brooks and Coulson 'warned about widespread phone hacking in 2006' (explosive emails)

Brooks and Coulson 'warned about widespread phone hacking in 2006'
• Police source 'told then Sun editor of around 100 victims'
• Records 'suggested NI had paid Glenn Mulcaire over £1m'
• Email submitted to Leveson inquiry reveals Coulson briefing

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The internal News International (NI) email shows an unnamed police source told Brooks there were between 100 and 110 "victims" while the News of the World was under criminal investigation for hacking phones in the royal household. She was also told there were records suggesting NI had paid over £1m to Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator employed to carry out the hacking.

The email from NI lawyer Tom Crone, to the then News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, sets out what the police then knew and what steps they were planning to take in their first phone-hacking investigation. It was based on information that Crone says had been passed to him by Rebekah Brooks, then Wade, who was at time the editor of the Sun. She had also been News of the World editor before Coulson.

"They are confident they have Clive and [Mulcaire] bang to rights on the palace interception," says Crone's email to Coulson.

The email told Coulson that police had recovered payment records from News International to Mulcaire: "The only payment records they found were from News International … the News of the World retainer and other invoices. They said that over the period they looked at (going way back) there seemed to be over £1m of payments."

the rest:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/27/brooks-coulson-phone-hacking-2006?CMP=twt_fd