On his third day of testimony today, former editor of News Corp's News of the World Andy Coulson said that he had heard a voice mail detailing an affair that involved Labour lawmaker David Blunkett. The voice mail message was allegedly obtained by the chief reporter of a tabloid.
Telling the court, the 46 year-old said that he was shocked about the voice mail and initially thought that the deed was an invasion of privacy. Coulson said he later changed his mind the following week and considered that a story should be run based on the 2004 message as it was in the public interest.
"I was shocked. There was an investigation into a senior politician that happened to be a friend of the newspaper and on what Neville was telling me there was a breach of privacy. I used some colorful language and said what on earth do you think that you are doing?" Coulson said.
Neville Thurlbeck, the chief reporter who obtained that message, has already pleaded guilty to phone hacking in the current trial, Bloomberg said.
Coulson said that he was unaware that the way of retrieving the message was illegal, and that when Thurlbeck pitched the Labour minister affair story based on the message again, he checked with legal counsel, of which the former tabloid editor said there was no mention of illegality. Coulson also insisted that it is the only lone message that was obtained by phone hacking that he listened to, and remained in his statement that he has no knowledge about the journalists at the tabloud hacking a murdered schoolgirl's phone to retrieve her messages.
Bloomberg said Coulson is among the seven who has been charged with a variety of wrongdoing at the British unit of News Corp. Some of the wrongdoing that were charged on some of Coulson's group include phone hacking and bribing public officials.
