Day 73, Part 1: Former royal editor Clive Goodman today denied pocketing cash payments from the News of the World meant for his sources.
Asked about payments for five gossip stories in the NoW that had been based on quotes taken from other publications, Mr Goodman insisted that they had gone to tipsters who had identified and sold the tidbits to him.
Mr Goodman and Mr Coulson on trial at the Old Bailey charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in public office for allegedly paying public officials for copies of royal phone directories.
The trial has heard that Mr Goodman emailed Mr Coulson that the money had to be paid in cash because the sources of the directories were police officers who could be prosecuted if anyone found out.
Cross-examining Mr Goodman, Andy Coulson’s QC Timothy Langdale suggested that Mr Goodman had a practice of putting down false information about contacts so he could keep the money himself.
Mr Langdale told the jury that over a five a half-year period from 2001 to August 2006 when he was arrested for phone hacking, Mr Goodman had received cash payments from the NoW for his contacts totalling £215,600.
Yet over the same period, Mr Langdale pointed out, police analysis of Mr Goodman’s financial records showed that he had not withdrawn any cash from his personal bank account between May 2004 and June 2006.
In his fifth day in the witness box, Mr Goodman said that his high-spending lifestyle had ended when he got a new girlfriend and they were expecting a child in 2004. “I wasn’t going out so much and started to get cashback from supermarkets more,” he told the Old Bailey. “I lived a much quieter life.”
Mr Langdale asked him: “Did you keep for yourself any money you got in cash from the News of the World?”
“No, I did not,” the journalist replied.
Mr Goodman also rejected the suggestion that his career at the News of the World had been failing under Mr Coulson’s editorship, saying: “I was bringing in stories, but Andy and Neil [Wallis, the deputy editor] didn’t seem to like what I was doing.”
Mr Langdale continued: “Getting a bit work-shy?”, to which Mr Goodman replied: “Certainly not.”
Mr Goodman, who worked on the NoW for 20 years, and Mr Coulson, editor between 2003 and 2007, deny conspiring to commit misconduct in public office. The case continues.
Reblogged this on Vox Political.
Reblogged this on David Hencke and commented:
An amazing new fact : Clive Goodman, who received E215,600 over a five and a half year period to pay his contacts,managed not to draw a single penny from his bank account for two years between 2004 and 2006. He denies pocketing any of the contacts money for himself. All I will say is that sadly I have heard ( not to do with this case ) of this practice among a few journos in Fleet street.