Dan Evans: ‘I hacked voicemails at the Sunday Mirror and News of the World’, court told

Former tabloid journalist Dan Evans has pleaded guilty to phone-hacking at the Sunday Mirror and News of the World, the Old Bailey has heard.

Evans told the hacking trial that he had been involved with phone-hacking at the Sunday Mirror from 2003 until he moved to the News of the World in 2005.

Asked by prosecutor Andrew Edis QC what his job at the Sunday Mirror was, Evans said: "I was a news reporter. Principally I was tasked with covering news events, investigations, undercover work, latterly with hacking people's voicemail."

He told the court he had been approached by a journalist to join the News of the World in 2005.

Phone-hacking was discussed with the journalist when they first discussed a job at the News of the World in a bar, the court heard.

He said: "Voicemail interception became part of the conversation. It was not referred to as phone-hacking – that phrase did not exist then."

But he told the court he initially did not want a job there to be the journalist's "pet phone-0hacker" when he wanted to do more investigations work.

Evans told the Old Bailey that he had been recruited from the Sunday Mirror by the News of the World because of his phone-hacking knowledge.

He said that he was approached by staff from the News of the World three times before he finally resigned from the Sunday Mirror in October 2004 and left three months later.

He said: "I was bringing phone-hacking techniques and methodology. I was bringing a pretty lengthy list of phone hacking targets. People whose voicemails had been intercepted, general skills to perpetuate that activity."

But he said he did not want to become a "pet phone-hacker", for James Weatherup, who was already working at the News of the World.

Evans discussed the practice with staff from the newspaper when they had their first meeting to discuss a possible job, the court heard.

He said: "Voicemail interception became part of the conversation. It was not referred to as phone-hacking – that phrase did not exist then."

At a second meeting at the same bar with Weatherup, they were joined by another News of the World staff member, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

Evans said: "He sat down and said 'I know you can screw phones, what else can you do?' "

To which Evans, 38, replied: "Quite a lot, actually. I told him I was an investigative reporter."

The court heard that Evans has already admitted conspiracy to hack phones at the Sunday Mirror between February 2003 and January 2005, and the same offence at the News of the World between April 2004 and June 2010.

He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office between January 2008 and June 2010, and perverting the course of justice by giving a false statement in High Court proceedings.

Evans told the jury that he was involved in hacking at the Sunday Mirror for about a year and a half from 2003 when he was given a staff job, but it had been going on before that.

The trial continues.