Trinity Mirror has said it “does not tolerate” wrongdoing within its business after the Old Bailey heard yesterday that former Sunday Mirror journalist Dan Evans has pleaded guilty to phone-hacking.
Evans, 38, appeared yesterday as a witness for the prosecution in the case against Andy Coulson and others.
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.
A spokesperson for Trinity Mirror said: “We note that Dan Evans, a former journalist of the Sunday Mirror, has pleaded guilty to phone-hacking during his time at the Group in 2003 and 2004. We do not tolerate wrongdoing within our business and take any allegations seriously.”
The spokesperson confirmed that it was “too soon to know how this matter will progress” and advised there would be further updates “if there are any significant developments”.
Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire; ex News of the World editor Andy Coulson, also 45, from Charing in Kent; and the tabloid's ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73, from Woodford Green, Essex, are all on trial accused of conspiring with others to hack phones between 3 October 2000 and 9 August 2006.
Former NoW and Sun editor Brooks is also accused of two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office – one between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2012 and the other between 9 February 2006 and 16 October 2008 – linked to alleged inappropriate payments to public officials.
She faces another two allegations of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice – one with her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter, 49, from Chelmsford in Essex, between 6 July and 9 July 2011; and a second with her husband, Charlie Brooks, and former head of security at News International, Mark Hanna, and others between 15 July and 19 July 2011.
Coulson is also facing two allegations that he conspired with former NoW royal editor Clive Goodman, 56, from Addlestone in Surrey, and other unknown people to commit misconduct in public office – between 31 August 2002 and 31 January 2003, and between 31 January and 3 June 2005.
All of the accused deny all of the charges.
The trial continues.
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