No matter what is said, no matter how logical the explanation doesn’t this news raise some eyebrows?
A former News of the World reporter who was the first to allege that Andy Coulson knew phone hacking was taking place at the paper was today found dead at home.
Sean Hoare’s body was found on a extraordinary day when a Met police chief resigned over the phone hacking scandal, four senior officers were facing questions and the Prime Minister was forced to call an emergency session of Parliament.
Police were tonight probing the possibility that Mr Hoare had killed himself and said that his death was ‘not thought to be suspicious’. He was discovered at 10.40am at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire
Mr Hoare blew the whistle on the phone hacking scandal during an investigation by The New York Times last September.
He then told the BBC that he was personally asked by Mr Coulson to hack into phones and branded the former editor’s claim that he was unaware of the practice as ‘simply a lie’.
Mr Hoare, a former showbusiness reporter at the newspaper, claimed that Mr Coulson asked him to hack into phone messages in pursuit of stories.
Mr Hoare was sacked over drink and drug problems, and the paper at the time said his claims should be treated with ‘extreme scepticism’.
It said: ‘The News of the World repeatedly asked the New York Times to provide evidence to support their allegations and they were unable to do so.
‘Indeed, the story they published contained no new credible evidence and relied heavily on anonymous sources, contrary to the paper’s own editorial guidelines.
‘In so doing, they have undermined their own reputation and confirmed our suspicion their story was motivated by commercial rivalry.
‘We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World.’
A few more details in the Guardian article:
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.
Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: “At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.
“The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing.”
Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World.
He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the phone hacking, but that he actively encouraged his staff to intercept the phone calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.
In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged that he was personally asked by his then-editor, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson’s insistence that he didn’t know about the practice was “a lie, it is simply a lie”.
At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly denied the allegations and said he had “never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone hacking took place”.
Sean Hoare, a one-time close friend of Coulson’s, told the New York Times the two men first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. Coulson “actively encouraged me to do it”, Hoare said.
In September last year, he was interviewed under caution by police over his claims that the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones when he was editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment.
Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the News of the World were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals in exchange for payments to police officers.
(We report…you decide..)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.