Reporter implicates Murdoch execs and ex Cameron aide in phone hacking

LONDON, (Reuters) – Phone hacking was widely known  about at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, according to a  reporter blamed as the sole culprit, contradicting repeated  denials by senior executives and dragging Britain’s prime  minister back into the scandal.
In a letter written four years ago in an appeal against his  dismissal from the tabloid, former royal reporter Clive Goodman  said the practice of hacking was openly discussed until the then  editor Andy Coulson banned any reference to it.
Coulson, who has repeatedly denied all knowledge of the  practice, went on to become the official spokesman for Prime  Minister David Cameron, a move which took the affair into the  political arena and forced the government to turn on Rupert  Murdoch after years of courting his favour.
“This practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial  conference, until explicit reference to it was banned by the  Editor,” the Goodman letter said, published as part of a  parliamentary investigation into hacking. “Other members of  staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures.”
Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 along with private detective  Glenn Mulcaire, said he had been told he could keep his job if  he agreed not to implicate the newspaper — but was fired  nonetheless after being sentenced to prison.
The committee investigating the hacking scandal said on  Tuesday it would probably recall James Murdoch to give further  evidence after receiving the Goodman letter and statements from  other parties which contradicted his previous testimony.
“I think it is very likely that we will want to put those  points to James Murdoch,” said committee head John Whittingdale,  adding that it was unlikely to recall Rupert Murdoch.
Tom Watson, the parliamentarian who has most doggedly  pursued the scandal, told Sky News it could be months if not  years before the full picture of what had happened at the  newspaper emerged. “If this letter is accurate, the whole  foundation of the company’s defence collapses,” he said.