Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson sent an email telling a news editor to "do his phone" in relation to an alleged target of phone hacking, a British prosecutor said today.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis told a jury that the instruction referred to Calum Best, son of late soccer star George Best, who was the subject of intense interest by the now-defunct Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid.
Edis was continuing opening arguments in the case against former News of the World editors Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, and six others on hacking-related charges. All deny the allegations.
But prosecutors say Coulson, Brooks and other senior staff must have known that illegal activity was taking place at the paper in the early- to mid-2000s.
Brooks edited the News of the World from 2000 to 2003, then went on to edit its sister paper, The Sun, and later became the chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper division. Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007 before becoming communications chief to Prime Minister David Cameron.
Brooks and Coulson, both 45, and six others are on trial in the first major criminal case spawned by the revelation in 2011 that employees of the News of the World eavesdropped on the voice mails of celebrities, politicians and even crime victims.
The phone hacking scandal forced Murdoch to shut the 168-year-old News of the World, triggered several police inquiries and has created intense pressure on Britain's freewheeling tabloid press to mend its ways.
The prosecutor focused today on the alleged role of former news editor Ian Edmondson, one of the accused. Edis said Edmondson was behind a bout of "frenetic" phone hacking activity starting in 2004 that saw private investigator Glenn Mulcaire instructed to access the voicemails of actors Jude Law and Sienna Miller, former Beatle Paul McCartney and his then-wife Heather Mills, British politician Mark Oaten and others.
Friends, family and associates of celebrities were also targeted, Edis said, and sometimes even people caught up at random in the tabloid net. He said a hairdresser named Laura Rooney was hacked "because they thought she was related to Wayne Rooney," the Manchester United soccer star. She wasn't.
Mulcaire was convicted in 2007 of hacking the phones of royal aides, and has pleaded guilty to new hacking charges.
Three former news editors at the tabloid also have pleaded guilty, but Edmondson denies phone hacking.
