The chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia will be asked to clarify evidence he gave over when and what he knew about payments made to settle lawsuits against the Sunday tabloid in 2008.
Those payments are seen by committee members as a sign that senior executives of the newspaper group knew by then that they were not justified in claiming that only one journalist at the paper had been responsible for phone hacking.
The news came as it emerged that a huge cache of previously unknown documents has been discovered by News Group, the subsidiary of News International that owns the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World, that could have a “significant” bearing on claims being brought by victims of alleged phone hacking.
The executives’ public position on the extent of the scandal changed only this year, when they admitted that there was widespread hacking and News Corp closed down the paper.
Mr Murdoch told the committee in July that he had not been told of an e-mail, addressed to the News of the World’s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, before agreeing to pay a settlement of almost £1m to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association.
After that, Tom Crone, the now-defunct paper’s lawyer, and Colin Myler, its final editor, issued a statement saying that James Murdoch had been mistaken in this evidence.
The pair were recalled last week to give their version of events and said they were certain that Mr Murdoch had been told of the so-called “for Neville” e-mail in 2008.
The e-mail consists of the transcripts made by a junior reporter of dozens of voicemail messages illegally intercepted on Mr Taylor’s mobile phone in 2006.
Mr Crone and Mr Myler told MPs that everyone involved in defending the case understood the significance of the e-mail. Had Mr Taylor sued in open court, it would have become obvious that there was evidence that Clive Goodman, the newspaper’s royal editor, was not – as News Corp had previously claimed – the only journalist using the illegal technique of phone hacking.
The committee decided at a meeting on Tuesday to recall Mr Murdoch to hear his side of the story. He issued a statement last week in response to the MP’s questioning of Mr Crone, Mr Myler and two other former News Corp employees in which he said he stood by his earlier account and that he was not told of the email during the meeting.
Mr Murdoch’s spokesman said he would be happy to appear again. It is unlikely that this will take place before November, according to a person familiar with the committee’s schedule. Les Hinton, who led News Corp’s British newspaper business between 1995 and 2007, will also be recalled.
It also emerged on Tuesday that Sheila Henry, the mother of a man killed in the July 2005 bombings in London, has filed a civil claim against the News of the World stating that her phone was hacked.
Ms Henry’s case will be added to another five used as a test group that will be tried in January, Mr Justice Vos said on Tuesday. Her son, Christian Small, was killed on the Piccadilly Line of the London Underground during the terrorist attacks in 2005.
The cache of previously unknown documents, in the form of two archives, which could number in the tens of thousands of documents, were mentioned in a court hearing on Tuesday. The documents were discovered after News Corp set up a standards committee to look at issues emanating from the police investigation into phone-hacking and increased parliamentary and public attention.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, the claimants’ barrister, told the court that the influx of unread material, in addition to e-mails that are being reconfigured, meant that Farrer & Co, the company’s solicitors, could not keep to a pre-arranged timetable to disclose relevant documents to a group of claimants, including celebrities and politicians that are suing the group.
“There’s some important material in what’s already been disclosed. I took the step of looking at some of the material,” said Mr Justice Vos. “There’s some significant material. I’m sure there’s lots more to come.” He said that he would not delay the January trial, even in light of Farrer's’ disclosure problems.
Mr Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 for hacking phones.
News International issued an unreserved apology this summer and will pay damages in certain lawsuits after it accepted that phone hacking had been widespread.
The scandal has since engulfed the highest levels of News Corp and even the prime minister, after the arrest of Andy Coulson, his former communications chief and ex-News of the World editor.
By Ben Fenton and Caroline Binham taken from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/5469c6a4-ddfd-11e0-a391-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F5469c6a4-ddfd-11e0-a391-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=#axzz1XmVLqgk9
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