Hacked Off In The UK, Part 5

Former News of the World employees say that James Murdoch was telling big old fibs in his testimony to Parliament earlier this week.

Gordon Taylor, then the chief executive of the PFA, sued News Of The World for phone hackings that took place in 2005. In an out-of-court settlement, News Corp paid Taylor a confidential six-figure sum in 2008. Though Murdoch told Parliament the company was advised by lawyers to pay Taylor £250,000 (around $400,000), according to a report by The Guardian the total may have been closer to £600,000 (around $1 million), including legal expenses.

According to Murdoch's testimony to Parliament, he made the deal without knowing about a piece of evidence known as the "for Neville" e-mail. The e-mail, from 2005, contained transcripts of 35 hacked phone messages from Taylor's phone, and identified them as "the transcript for Neville." The Guardian identified "Neville" as News Of The World reporter Neville Thurlbeck.

With you so far.

When asked whether he knew about the e-mail in the hearings, Murdoch said: "No, I was not aware of that at the time." He had previously said in a statement that he "did not have a complete picture" of the extent of the hackings when he OKed the settlement.

But Colin Myler, former editor of News of the World, and Tom Crone, former legal manager of News of the World, said in a statement on Thursday that they informed Murdoch of the "for Neville" e-mail at the time.

"Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday's Culture Media and Sport Select Committee hearing," they said in a statement, "we would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken. In fact, we did inform him of the 'for Neville' email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers."

If Thurlbeck was involved and Murdoch knew about it, it would undermine much of the Murdochs' -- and News International's -- defense that they thought the the phone hackings were only the work of reporter Clive Goodman. It would additionally imply that the Taylor settlement was an effort to cover up the extent of the scandal by keeping revelations about Thurlbeck out of court.

News Corp put out a statement in response, saying: "James Murdoch stands by his testimony to the select committee." 

Things are unraveling fast, folks.  Of course the Murdochs knew and lied to Parliament.  And when all is said and done, I expect one hell of a plea deal for these clowns.