Hacked voicemails found in safe at Murdoch’s UK company, court told
Voicemail messages from Britain's Former Home Secretary to his mistress found in top lawyer's safe at Rupert Murdoch's News International offices in London, court hears
Recordings of hacked voicemail messages from then British home secretary were found in the safe of the top lawyer at Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, the trial of two of his former editors over phone-hacking was told on Thursday.
The messages from David Blunkett, in charge of policing and security as prime minister Tony Blair’s interior minister at the time, were hacked from the phone of his lover in 2004, London’s Old Bailey central criminal court heard.
Audio recordings of the messages, transcripts and drafts of stories that would later appear in the News of the World Sunday tabloid were discovered in the safe, said a detective involved in the inquiry into the illegal tapping of mobile phone voicemails at the paper.
Two of the paper’s former editors, Andy Coulson, 45, who later became Prime Minister David Cameron’s media spokesman, and Rebekah Brooks, 45, who went on to run News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch’s News Corp empire, are on trial for conspiracy to hack phones.
They also stand accused of making illegal payments to public officials and Brooks of perverting the course of justice. Five other former News International staff and Brooks’ husband are also on trial.
The prosecution said details of the Blunkett hacking were found at the house of Glenn Mulcaire, a private eye who worked for the News of the World and was convicted of phone-hacking in 2006.
Police reopened their inquiry in 2011 and the court was told 330 recordings of messages left by David Blunkett had been found, with all the messages which he left on the phone of his married lover, Kimberly Quinn, discovered at News International.
