Neville Thurlbeck: 'News of the World withheld hacking evidence'

Source: The Guardian

The News of the World's former chief reporter has provided written evidence to MPs accusing executives on the paper of "withholding information" about the extent of phone-hacking at the title from a parliamentary committee and other senior News International managers including James Murdoch.

Neville Thurlbeck claimed Colin Myler, the former News of the World editor, and Tom Crone, the former head of legal at the newspaper, had left him "to dangle as a suspect for the next two years" after he first told them in July 2009 that he had "final proof" that phone-hacking at the paper went beyond a single "rogue reporter".

The phone-hacking scandal eventually led to the decision by the paper's owners News International to close the title in July of this year.

News International had previously insisted that phone-hacking had only been carried out by royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who commissioned private detective Glenn Mulcaire to hack into voicemail messages. In 2006, they were both found guilty of phone hacking and were jailed the following year.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/08/neville-thurlbeck-phone-hacking-evidence