Out-Law News 1 min. read
06 Jan 2011, 3:55 pm
Reports have named the suspended executive as Ian Edmonson, the assistant editor of the News of the World (NOTW). He was suspended from active duties before Christmas, reports say.
A statement from the newspaper said that an allegation had been made about a member of staff. "We have followed our internal procedures and we can confirm that this person was suspended from active duties just before Christmas," said the NOTW statement, according to news agency AFP.
The suspension follows revelations in The Guardian newspaper that Edmonson could be connected to phone hacking carried out for the paper by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Mulcaire's notes when he hacked celebrities' and their staff members' phones contained a name at the top of some of the pages. That name was 'Clive' when he was commissioned by former royal editor Clive Goodman. The Guardian reported in December that some pages contained the name 'Ian' in that spot.
The Guardian has seen court papers related to a suit brought against the NOTW by actress Sienna Miller which claim that Miller's case is that the 'Ian' referred to is Edmonson, and that hacking of Miller's phone by Mulcaire took place and was part of a strategy employed by the NOTW.
Goodman and Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 when they were found guilty of illegally intercepting messages left on the mobile phones of royal staff.
The newspaper's then-editor Andy Coulson resigned over the affair and is now director of communications for Prime Minister David Cameron. The newspaper and Coulson have maintained that Goodman was working on his own and that there was no involvement of the paper or other staff in the illegal activity.
Miller is suing the NOTW claiming harassment and breach of privacy over the alleged hacking into messages on phones belonging to her, her publicist, her then-partner Jude Law and a member of his staff.
