Today, it turns out that while editor, Coulson employed a private detective who had just been released from prison for blackmail and had been charged with corrupting police officers. This makes his claim to have known nothing about his paper's wiretapping activities rather dubious - and rather clashes with the Tories' hysterical claim to be the party of law'n'order.
Evidence seen by the Guardian shows that Mr A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was blagging bank accounts, bribing police officers, procuring confidential data from the DVLA and phone companies, and trading sensitive material from live police inquiries.
Mr A cannot be named now because he is facing trial for a violent crime, but his details will emerge once he has been dealt with by the courts. Coulson tonight refused to say whether he was aware of Mr A's criminal background, or of his return to the paper following his prison term. He said: "I have nothing to add to the evidence I gave to the select committee."
The latest disclosures bring to four the number of investigators known to have worked for the NoW while Coulson was either editor or deputy editor of the paper. All four have since received or had criminal convictions. All four are known to have used illegal methods to gather information.
The new details emerged on the day a committee of MPs criticised the "collective amnesia" and "deliberate obfuscation" of News Internationalexecutives over their attempts to cover up the phone-hacking scandal.
I'd love to be wiretapping Tory HQ today!
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