1988: Coulson joins The Sun as showbiz reporter on Bizarre and rises through the ranks to become Bizarre editor, then assistant editor and associate editor.
May 2000: appointed deputy editor of the News of the World.
January 2003: appointed editor of NoW after former chief Rebekah Wade leaves to become editor of The Sun.
June 2003: NoW at the centre of controversy about payments to witnesses after the collapse of the trial of four Romanians and an Albanian accused of plotting to kidnap Victoria Beckham and her children, uncovered by Mazher Mahmood.
April 2004: NoW uncovers David Beckham’s alleged affair with his personal assistant Rebecca Loos. Story later wins British Press Awards scoop of the year.
June 2004: understood to have rejected approach to edit Daily Mirror, after Piers Morgan is sacked for publishing fake pictures of British troops torturing Iraqi prisoners. March 2005: NoW named British Press Awards newspaper of the year. Coulson tells Press Gazette: ‘I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, and this goes for everyone on the NoW, in what we do for a living. The readers are the judges, that’s the most important thing.’March 2006: David and Victoria Beckham withdraw legal action against the NoW after seeking libel damages over an article that carried the headline: ‘Posh and Becks on the Rocks.’ July 2005: the Romanian man accused by the NoW of plotting to kidnap Victoria Beckham loses his appeal against a High Court libel decision in May. Alin Turcu claimed that he was ‘set-up”, but Mr Justice Keene refused Turcu permission to take the NoW again to court saying there was ‘no realistic prospect of a successful appeal”.
February 2006: NoW reveals Liberal Democrat MP Mark Oaten paid for the sexual services of a male prostitute over a six-month period. Oaten resigns as home affairs spokesman.
April 2006: England footballer Wayne Rooney receives £100,000 in damages from the NoW and sister paper The Sun over articles falsely reporting he had slapped his fiancée, Coleen McLoughlin.
June 2006: NoW and The Sun pay around £100,000 in damages to Premiership footballer Ashley Cole after falsely suggesting that he had been involved in a ‘gay orgy”.
May 2006: NoW wins Sunday newspaper of the year at the London Press Club Awards for the third-year running. It was the paper the judges felt they would least like to be without and was described as ‘an incredible sledgehammer of a production”.
March 2006: George Galloway calls for sacking of NoW investigations editor Mahmood after being on receiving end of a ‘fake sheik’undercover sting in which he said Mahmood encouraged him to make anti-semitic remarks and accept improper political financing. July 2006: Three men cleared of trying to buy a ‘dirty bomb”, as revealed by NoW Mahmood undercover sting in 2004. August 2006: Scottish MP Tommy Sheridan awarded £200,000 in libel damages against the NoW over claims about his sex life. An investigation is currently underway over whether witnesses in the trial committed perjury.
August 2006: NoW assistant editor (Royals) Clive Goodman arrested following an allegation that the mobile phone messages of aides working for the Prince of Wales had been intercepted. The offices of the NoW in Wapping searched by police.
26 January 2007: Clive Goodman is jailed for four months after being found guilty of intercepting phone message. Coulson announces his resignation.
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