Encomium
-Over phone hacking
DEFUNCT News of the World editor, Andy Coulson has been sentenced to 18 months in jail over phone hacking.
The 46 year-old father of three children, who once worked at 10, Downing Street (London, the United Kingdom) for Prime Minister David Cameron, was found guilty of supervising and encouraging the hacking of phones of both celebrities and less known members of the public.
As editor of News of the World, the most commercially successful newspaper in British history, Coulson encouraged the practice to get competitive advantages.
The judge said this morning (Friday, July 4, 2014) : “Mr. Coulson has to take the major shame for the blame of phone hacking at NotW. He knew about it, he encouraged it when he should have stopped it.”
The trial lasted eight months, and saw Rebecca Brooks, the editor-in-chief of the paper at the time, acquitted.
