Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson on Tuesday denied a claim that he listened to a hacked voicemail left by actress Sienna Miller for James Bond star Daniel Craig.
Coulson
and six others are on trial on charges stemming from the revelation in
2011 that the News of the World regularly eavesdropped on the voicemails
of people in the public eye. The scandal led Rupert Murdoch to shut the
newspaper and pay millions in compensation to hacking victims.
Ex-reporter
Daniel Evans, who has pleaded guilty to phone hacking, testified
earlier this year that he played Coulson the message from Miller in
2005.
Prosecutors have suggested illegal hacking was the source of a story about an affair between Miller — then dating actor Jude Law — and Craig. Defense lawyers say the information may instead have come from a relative of Law.
Coulson
said the meeting Evans described had not taken place. He added that he
was "absolutely not" aware of phone hacking by private investigator
Glenn Mulcaire, who was employed by the newspaper.
All seven
defendants deny wrongdoing. Coulson, who served as Prime Minister David
Cameron's communications chief after leaving the News of the World in
2007, denies conspiring to hack phones and conspiring to pay a police
officer for a royal phone directory.
Coulson said Tuesday that he
"rubber-stamped" a request for a 1,000 pound cash payment for the
directory, but did not believe they money was for an illegal purpose.
Jurors
were shown a 2003 email to Coulson from royal editor Clive Goodman,
warning that getting caught making the payment meant the police officer
"could end up on criminal charges, as could we."
Coulson said that at the time "I didn't believe Clive was paying policemen. I still don't believe it."
Goodman was briefly jailed in 2007, along with Mulcaire, for eavesdropping on the voicemails of royal aides.
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