Coulson charged with perjury over phone hacking evidence
PRIME Minister David Cameron’s former spokesman was charged with perjury yesterday, after denying in court any knowledge of widespread phone hacking by reporters at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.
The charges against Andy Coulson, a former editor of the tabloid weekly, damages Cameron because it calls into question his judgment in employing a man so closely linked to the paper which was under suspicion of obtaining stories by illegal means.
Scottish police detained Coulson at his home in London early yesterday and drove him to Glasgow for hours of questioning before charging him.
Prosecutors said his arrest followed his appearance before the High Court in Glasgow in 2010 over a News of the World story published when he was editor.
Coulson, Cameron’s communications director from 2007 to January 2011, told the court he had no knowledge of illegal activities by reporters while he was the paper’s editor. He was arrested last July by police investigating phone hacking and bribery at the News of the World.
Perjury can in theory result in a life sentence, but sentences of a couple of years are more typical, a spokesman for the Scottish government justice department said yesterday.