Andy Coulson today told the Old Bailey how he listened to voicemail messages in which David Blunkett was “declaring his love” to his married lover.
It is his first admission of knowing about voicemail interceptions while he was editor of the News of the World.
The story of the former home secretary’s affair came two years after Milly Dowler’s disappearance. Coulson has told the jury he had no idea the NoW had hacked the schoolgirl’s phone.
He said he was “shocked” when told of messages Blunkett had left on Spectator publisher Kimberley Quinn’s phone in 2004.
At first, Coulson said, he believed accessing the messages had been a breach of privacy. But he told the court he changed his mind on the grounds that the story was in the public interest.
Chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck played tapes of the voicemails to Coulson in the editor’s office at Wapping.
Coulson told the court: “I made the assumption that Neville had done these tapes himself. I was still shocked. It was the first and only time that voicemail messages were played to me.”
Coulson said he took advice from a lawyer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and “there was no mention made of illegality (of phone hacking)”.
Thurlbeck has pleaded guilty to phone hacking. Coulson has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to hack phones. He has also denied conspiring to pay public officials for stories.
All the other defendants deny all charges against them. The case continues.
