Colin Myler, former editor of the News of the World, Les Hinton, former executive chairman of News International, and Tom Crone, former legal manager of News Group newspapers, were all accused of misleading Parliament by the Commons select committee on Culture Media and Sport in its final report on phone hacking.
These were its findings:
• Les Hinton misled the Committee in 2009 in not telling the truth about payments to Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal reporter who was jailed in 2007, and his role in authorising them, including the payment of his legal fee. He also misled the Committee about the extent of his knowledge of allegations that phone hacking extended beyond Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire to others at the News of the World.
• Tom Crone misled the Committee in 2009 by giving a counter-impression of the significance of confidentiality in the Gordon Taylor settlement and sought to mislead the Committee about the commissioning of surveillance.
• Tom Crone and Colin Myler misled the Committee by answering questions falsely about their knowledge of evidence that other News of the World employees had been involved in phone hacking and other wrongdoing.
• Corporately, the News of the World and News International misled the Committee about the true nature and extent of the internal investigations they professed to have carried out in relation to phone hacking; by making statements they would have known were not fully truthful; and by failing to disclose documents which would have helped expose the truth.
The Committee was split over the tougher wording - the original paragraph just found they had misled the committee - with Tory MPs voting against.
But they appeared united over the need for further action. The Committee concluded: "We note that it makes no difference — in terms of misleading this Committee - that evidence was not taken on oath. Witnesses are required to tell the truth to committees whether on oath or not. We will table a motion inviting the House to endorse our conclusions about misleading evidence."
In effect it said it was going to table a motion to the House calling on the Commons to decide what punishment it should mete out to Messrs Crone, Myler and Hinton....read more
http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/phone-hacking/46941/rebekah-brooks-down-now-myler-crone-and-hinton-await-their-fate#.T7Nc2p7bmts.twitterThese were its findings:
• Les Hinton misled the Committee in 2009 in not telling the truth about payments to Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal reporter who was jailed in 2007, and his role in authorising them, including the payment of his legal fee. He also misled the Committee about the extent of his knowledge of allegations that phone hacking extended beyond Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire to others at the News of the World.
• Tom Crone misled the Committee in 2009 by giving a counter-impression of the significance of confidentiality in the Gordon Taylor settlement and sought to mislead the Committee about the commissioning of surveillance.
• Tom Crone and Colin Myler misled the Committee by answering questions falsely about their knowledge of evidence that other News of the World employees had been involved in phone hacking and other wrongdoing.
• Corporately, the News of the World and News International misled the Committee about the true nature and extent of the internal investigations they professed to have carried out in relation to phone hacking; by making statements they would have known were not fully truthful; and by failing to disclose documents which would have helped expose the truth.
The Committee was split over the tougher wording - the original paragraph just found they had misled the committee - with Tory MPs voting against.
But they appeared united over the need for further action. The Committee concluded: "We note that it makes no difference — in terms of misleading this Committee - that evidence was not taken on oath. Witnesses are required to tell the truth to committees whether on oath or not. We will table a motion inviting the House to endorse our conclusions about misleading evidence."
In effect it said it was going to table a motion to the House calling on the Commons to decide what punishment it should mete out to Messrs Crone, Myler and Hinton....read more
