Thursday 10 April 2014
Summary | ||
The Defence of Stuart Kuttner Continues | ||
Stuart Kuttner is Cross-Examined by Counsel for Clive Goodman | ||
Payments to False Names | ||
Kuttners relationship with Clive Goodman | ||
Andy Coulson becomes Editor – Neil Wallis Deputy Editor | ||
Cash Payments | ||
Goodman’s Demotion | ||
Kuttner does not recollect Alec Hall | ||
Kuttner’s meetings with Clive Goodman after his arrest | ||
Kuttner meeting at the Sun | ||
Payments to Mulcaire continue | ||
Kuttner’s opinion of Goodman and Mulcaire | ||
The Alexander Project | ||
Stuart Kuttner is Cross-Examined by the Prosecution | ||
Kuttner questioned on his meeting with Clive Goodman | ||
Stuart Kuttner Defence Witness – Lord Carey | ||
Lord Carey is questioned on his knowledge of Stuart Kuttner | ||
Stuart Kuttner’s Cross-Examined by the Prosecution continues | ||
Kuttner questioned further on his meeting with Clive Goodman | ||
Kuttner’s trust of journalists and payments | ||
Glen Mulcaire | ||
Paying Police Officers | ||
Kuttner’s medical condition | ||
Private Investigators |
The Defence of Stuart Kuttner Continues | ||
Stuart Kuttner is Cross-Examined by Counsel for Clive Goodman | ||
Back with Stuart Kuttner in the witness box of the #hackingtrial – being cross examined by David Spens QC, counsel for Clive Goodman | ||
Spens points out that Kuttner has “very complimentary things to say about Mr Coulson…. but not a single good word to say about Mr Goodman” | ||
“Is there anything you’ve said about Mr Goodman…. that is remotely complimentary?” asks Spens. Kuttner: “I trusted him for many years” | ||
Spens picks up Kuttner’s words that he’d “indulged” Clive Goodman. He points out how Rebekah Brooks promoted Goodman in June 2001 | ||
“That was a promotion on merit… not an indulgence” says Spens of Goodman’s promotion. “I don’t remember that episode” says Kuttner | ||
“He’d obviously done something right, Mr Goodman, to get that promotion” says Spens. “I don’t recall” says Kuttner. | ||
“There seemed to be an unending and unnecessary tension about who he reported to” says Kuttner of Clive Goodman. | ||
Kuttner cannot recall the details of the promotion of Goodman to editorial management budget, away from reporting to news desk. | ||
“Without trying to reconstruct the past or speculate…. I do not know why the switch was made” says Kuttner of Goodman’s promotion in 2001 | ||
16/07/01 memo from Kuttner to Rebekah Brooks on Goodman and another NOTW journalist being “accommodated in editorial management budget” | ||
“It wasn’t some indulgence he was appointed to editorial team, and it wasn’t Mr Coulson but Rebekah Brooks who promoted him” says Spens | ||
Payments to False Names | ||
Spens turns to Kuttner’s evidence that he never knew of sources being paid in ‘false names”: he says was already widespread at NOTW in 1986 | ||
Kuttner says it’s “nonsensical” to suggest he knew of false names and addresses for sources. | ||
Kuttner explains how Paul Nicholas worked with him “not terribly closely… Paul is quite an individual person…. not mirror myself” | ||
Kuttner doesn’t accept he worked in “tandem” with Paul Nicholas: his deputy as managing editor at NOTW. | ||
24/08/05 Paul Nicholas emails NOTW editors about cash payments. Spens reads part of it. | ||
This Nicholas email to Kuttner says of Goodman “virtually all his payments for Blackadder are for cash” and paying NI and Tax | ||
Kuttner agrees that the payee must have passed on details of name and address to tax authorities in order to pay the tax. | ||
Spens: “I’m suggesting to you…. all knew these protected sources were paid with false names and addresses” Kuttner: “that is not true” | ||
“I did not spend a lifetime in journalism to falsify dockets” Kuttner tells the jury at the #hackingtrial | ||
Kuttners relationship with Clive Goodman | ||
“You bear some animosity to Mr Goodman don’t you?” asks Spens. “I’m disappointed in Mr Goodman” says Kuttner. | ||
Spens contends Kuttner had a difficult relationship with Goodman since 1992. “I don’t accept animosity” says Kuttner. | ||
“There are instances he rejected information which was important… refused to follow stories…” says Kuttner | ||
“I simply do not believe as a veteran journalist that is the best way to conduct yourself,” Kuttner says of Goodman | ||
Spens talks about a Nick Davies (Mirror not Guardian) journalist 1992 book written as a “match” for the Morton Book: Diana her True Story | ||
Spens says Kuttner asked Goodman to provide background stories for his friend’s Diana book. Kuttner doesn’t recollect this. | ||
“One of the rumours of the forthcoming Morton book was rumours of a suicide bid by Princess Diana” says Spens. Kuttner does not remember | ||
Kuttner says he cannot the false story of Diana’s attempted suicide appearing in a rival newspapers by Nick Davies to plug his book | ||
Spens contends that Goodman had a furious row with Kuttner because he “leaked” info to Mirror journalist: “Completely and utterly false” | ||
“I did not at any time leak information” says Kuttner emphatically | ||
Spens contends that Goodman emailed him on two things: the first on processing credits, and the leader writing duties they shared at NOTW. | ||
Spens says Kuttner needed to be “chased”: because he was “very slow to sign off anyone’s credits”. Kuttner says he has a witness to contrary | ||
“That is completely false” says Kuttner to “liking to make people wait”. He says he was quick and took work home. | ||
Spens contends that Kuttner was “very slow” to sign off Goodman’s credits. “Did you deliberately make Mr Goodman wait?” “No, I did not” | ||
Kuttner says he “tried to run a tightish ship” on contributor payments: Spens says even more so on cash payments because of tax overhead | ||
“I looked for value for money” says Kuttner. He agrees they had back copies of NOTW to check contributions against columns in paper | ||
Kuttner agrees he ‘trusted’ staff. He agrees he might have visited staff, unannounced on extend sick leave. Spens: “Not wholly trusting?” | ||
“There was a culture at NI of looking after people, a culture that flows from Mr Rupert Murdoch downwards” says Kuttner. | ||
“As I repeatedly told the police I took a macro attitude to management of the budget” says Kuttner of his style | ||
Kuttner denies he had a reputation for “extreme scrutiny” or that he “kept an eagle eye on every pound” | ||
Kuttner also denies there was no “court of appeal” against his judgements. He says if there was a dispute it would go the editor. | ||
Kuttner previously described Goodman as “an enigma who didn’t want to travel” but he did sign off his travel expenses “up to a point” | ||
Spens contends that Goodman was the “most travelled reporter, internationally, on the whole paper”: Kuttner can’t remember that. | ||
Kuttner agrees that from memory he thinks Goodman was an “early starter”. | ||
Spens contends that Goodman didn’t want to go out “on half baked tips”. “It’s not up to the journalist to decide if half baked” says Kuttner | ||
Kuttner agrees that Goodman and management disagreed often about going out to follow stories. | ||
Spens talks about Kuttner and Brooks’ trip to Paris to sign up Bryan for a story about a royal affair. | ||
Kuttner says they signed up Bryan – and secured the story. Spens says he was already signed up. | ||
Andy Coulson becomes Editor – Neil Wallis Deputy Editor | ||
12/01/03 Coulson was appointed editor of NOTW. Neil Wallis arrived as his deputy the same month says David Spens QC. | ||
Wallis had been deputy editor of the Sun, and then editor of the People: Kuttner agrees he had been an expert on “hard news” | ||
Kuttner is asked whether Neil Wallis “was Mr Coulson’s choice?”: he doesn’t know if Wallis was the choice of someone more senior. | ||
Kuttner agrees Coulson’s previous experience was in showbusiness: Spens says he didn’t have hard news experience. | ||
Kuttner remembers Wallis’ nickname ‘Wolfman’: he describes him as “focused, direct and sometimes quite tough”: | ||
“He was a bully” says Spens of Wallis. Kuttner denies this. He says Wallis talked “directly” to reporters. “Quite a lot of shouting goes on” | ||
“Perhaps more than most” says Kuttner of Wallis’ raising his voice to staff at NOTW. | ||
Spens turns back to Kuttner’s evidence yesterday about “important one fact stories” and having only one shot a week at NOTW. | ||
Kuttner agrees a leak could be “devastating” to NOTW. He also confirms the “secret room” to prevent leaks to rivals. | ||
Spens: “That secret room eventually had to be sound proofed because Neil Wallis shouted so loudly everyone could hear the secret stories.” | ||
Kuttner is unaware of the soundproofing of the secret room, unaware of the reason it could be soundproofed, unaware of Wallis shouting | ||
Cash Payments | ||
24/01/03 email from Goodman to Coulson cited about “having a heck of a time getting cash payments from Stuart” | ||
Kuttner says he can’t remember Goodman asking him to pay any police officer, but he would have asked him to “clear off” | ||
Another 24/01/03 document cited by David Spens QC about the October 02 ‘Green Book’ and “cryptic credit payment” left for Kuttner | ||
Spens takes Kuttner to the relevant cash docket for the Green Book on 24/01/03 – authorised by cashier stamp four days later. | ||
The subject for this cash docket is ‘Royal Research Project’: Kuttner said previously he had no recollection of this. | ||
Spens claims Kuttner had a conversation with Goodman about the Green Book and it was a ‘secure source’: Kuttner has no recollection of this | ||
Justice Saunders has a question for Kuttner about anonymous sources – would it be done on a form like this? “Yes,” says Kuttner. | ||
Kuttner says that journalists should be “confidential source” on the part of the docket which normally contains a name. | ||
Goodman’s Demotion | ||
David Spens QC moves on to 2005, cross examining Stuart Kuttner, on behalf of his client Clive Goodman. | ||
22/06/05 “4 years after Goodman had been promoted” says Spens. about Goodman on the news desk head count, but still coming to conference | ||
Kuttner doesn’t think that Goodman’s reporting to news desk was a ‘demotion”: | ||
“Some of the most distinguished writers in Fleet St have reported through a news desk without equivocation” says Kuttner | ||
Kuttner agrees that Goodman might have seen this as a demotion: but he was still at the “high level” at editorial conferences. | ||
Kuttner didn’t notice that Goodman had been put down the “pecking order” at editorial conferences. | ||
Page numbers missing for Spens – other counsel search for 01/11/05 email. 15 minute break. | ||
Kuttner does not recollect Alec Hall | ||
Back after the break at #hackingtrial with 01/11/05 application for credit for ‘Alec Hall’ for Clive Goodman. | ||
Kuttner reiterates the name Alec Hall was unfamiliar to him: Spens says 160 cash payments over 4.5 years for Hall – £53k | ||
“Are you really saying the name Hall is not familiar to you?” asks Spens. Kuttner points out NOTW budget ran into “many millions of pounds” | ||
“I have no recollection of having a recollection” says Kuttner of Alec Hall | ||
“I have no recollection of payment to Hall at all” says Kuttner. “These were cash payments” | ||
Kuttner’s meetings with Clive Goodman after his arrest | ||
Spens goes back to Kuttner’s evidence over the arrest of Goodman and showing he “supported him” | ||
“Despite your question about the difficulties of Clive, he was one of the team” says Kuttner. “Quite unused to have any member arrested” | ||
Kuttner agrees Goodman worked for NOTW for 20 years: not sure what Spens means by assertion Goodman was a “company man” | ||
In his previous evidence Kuttner said he picked up Goodman 08/08/06 – but he agrees “it could indeed be the following day” 09/08/06 | ||
10/08/06 document adduced by Spens – Kuttner’s note of meeting with Goodman which he said “I think was made contemporaneously” | ||
Kuttner vaguely remembers a second meeting with Goodman after his arrest being “late morning” | ||
The contemporaneous note mentions £100: Kuttner “I think I gave Clive or his wife Jenny £100… I made this note to myself to reimburse” | ||
“A long time has elapsed” says Kuttner of how many visits he made to Goodman after his arrest. He remembers a night journey with Brandman | ||
Kuttner recalls going back three days later to see Goodman: “and sitting with him in the flat”. He’s uncertain of when £100 given | ||
“If Mr Goodman through you says I’m mistaken and it didn’t happen, I’ll accept that. But it’s unlikely” says Kuttner | ||
“I remember seeing the block of flats opposite in the day light” says Kuttner of annotated meeting. The 10/08/06 note is ‘possibly’ next day | ||
Kuttner agrees he was the first person from NOTW to see Goodman after his arrest, and he was the first senior management to see him | ||
Spens says Kuttner’s real reason for picking up Goodman was “to obtain information for NOTW of the state of police investigation” | ||
Kuttner says it was the “first time in his life” someone in a senior role arrested: “We tried to put the arm of the company around them” | ||
Kuttner doesn’t accept that he was trying to find out if other names at NOTW had been named during Goodman’s interview. | ||
Spens turns to Kuttner’s contemporaneous note of talking with Goodman after his arrest in August 2006 | ||
Spens goes through Mulcaire introducing Goodman to “serving spook…. dropping off inform… from secret services” | ||
Saunders goes back to manuscript note: says “leftovers from SIS bugging” – MI6 | ||
Kuttner note says Goodman talked of “dial in access from secret services”. Note “Told Andy this at the start”: Kuttner marked this line | ||
Kuttner note of Goodman conversation talks about payments to Mulcaire being “agreed” – Kuttner cannot confirm means agreed with Coulson | ||
Kuttner meeting at the Sun | ||
Same day 10/08/06 Kuttner went to a meeting at the Sun newspaper, according to attendance note by Henri Brandman. | ||
“I’m puzzled about the Sun” says Kuttner. Spens goes back to legal note including Coulson. “I’ve no recollection” says Kuttner. | ||
“One of the difficulties is a memory difficult caused by a heart attack and a brain stem stroke… a lot of recollections… have gone” | ||
Spens tries to jog Kuttner’s memory at the meeting at the Sun with himself Coulson and Henri Brandman. Note was made the same day. | ||
“The note must have been made before the meeting or after it” says Spens. The attendance note has no more details of content. | ||
“Do you think the presence of criminal solicitor there had something to do with Goodman’s arrest?” ask Saunders. Kuttner not sure. | ||
The next day there’s a legal note of a 3hour meeting at the Sun with Kuttner, Coulson and three lawyers. | ||
“I have an imprecise memory of lawyer’s meetings after Goodman’s arrest” says Kuttner. | ||
“What purpose did you write this note?” asks Spens. “So I had some kind of record of these events” says Kuttner. | ||
Kuttner agrees that people at the NOTW would have been very interested in what Goodman had said. | ||
Kuttner agrees it is “entirely reasonable” he told Coulson and others about the Goodman debriefing – and Coulson would have known. | ||
Payments to Mulcaire continue | ||
Spens, for Goodman, turns to 25/01/07 in his cross examination of Stuart Kuttner. | ||
Coulson emails Kuttner on 23/01/07 about last payments to Mulcaire: “fulfil the contract but not a penny more” | ||
NI lawyer replies to Kuttner on 25/01/07 – the day before Mulcaire sentenced – “keeping him non hostile till after tomorrow more important” | ||
“The NOTW continued to pay Mulcaire under his contract” says Spens despite the guilty plea. “What did non hostile mean to you?” | ||
Kuttner says “I don’t know what it meant to me if anything at all”; Saunders: “It’s coming out of your budget” | ||
Kuttner agrees that paying Mulcaire might have meant keeping him “sweet… and not talking to other press” | ||
“I do remember, as you can see, I passed this promptly on to Andy Coulson” says Kuttner. | ||
Kuttner says he’s not sure the payments were to stop Mulcaire “going public” about his payments | ||
“NOTW was involved in a uniquely unpleasant situation…. I would contain matters” says Kuttner. | ||
“If I aware of it, I was not conscious of it” says Kuttner of other NOTW journalists being named in the Mulcaire papers. | ||
Kuttner rejects Spens’ suggestion that he was trying to hide his authorisation of Alexander payments – though agrees he did authorise | ||
Kuttner’s opinion of Goodman and Mulcaire | ||
“The NOTW was in a very unhappy state of affairs, that I was very unwilling to extend” says Kuttner of Mulcaire. | ||
“I was so appalled. I thought the relationship with Mulcaire and Goodman should be severed” says Kuttner of 2006/7 | ||
Spens adduces 03/02/07 email from Kuttner to NOTW staff, under authority of the new editor Colin Myler | ||
Kuttner says he didn’t draft the letter to NOTW staff, but reviewed it: reiterates that PCC code is part of the terms of employment at NI | ||
Kuttner confirms that abiding by PCC code had been part of the terms of employment at NOTW for “years”. | ||
Kuttner agrees that he thought Goodman should have been severed for phone hacking immediately. | ||
Kuttner said he’d “formed the belief” that Coulson didn’t want to sack Goodman until legal proceedings completed | ||
Kuttner says he formed the view Goodman should have been sacked on guilty plea in Nov 06: but can’t remember if he told Coulson. | ||
The Alexander Project | ||
Back to Alexander Project payments, which began in November 2005. Spens: “Presumably you’ve been kept abreast of what evidence is” | ||
Kuttner accepts the dates of Alexander Project (Mulcaire/Goodman) are common ground: he has no recollection of Coulson authorising them | ||
Kuttner is not sure Coulson must have spoken to him about authorising Alexander Payments. | ||
Kuttner accepts Goodman was attached to the news desk and had no budget to pay Mulcaire on Alexander Payments. | ||
Kuttner talks about Goodman having “historical authority”: Kuttner says he might have taken view a senior person and accepted his signature | ||
“This is possible exception” to needing authorisation of desk heads for Alexander payments says Kuttner. | ||
Spens says Kuttner would have “laughed him straight out of the office” if Goodman had requested unauthorised cash payments for £500 pw | ||
Kuttner says he would have trusted Goodman for the £500 per week cash payments: “perhaps naively I would have accepted that” | ||
Spens points out that Kuttner had said Goodman had made a “bogus claim” around this time. “I thought he was pushing” | ||
“You’d criticised him on 31st of August with various complaints… you wouldn’t have authorised it” says Spens. “I have no recollection” | ||
Spens suggests to Kuttner he told Goodman that Coulson should approve the Alexander project. | ||
“The implication that I was falsifying a name.. absolutely false…. If he said John Brown or Alexander I would have no reason to challenge” | ||
Kuttner asked to read memo from Goodman to him about cash payments “this source in a sensitive profession” requires anonymity | ||
“No I’m not quite sure, because I have no precise recollection. But I think it’s unlikely” says Kuttner of wording over confidential sources | ||
10/01/06 memo to Kuttner from Goodman adduced in Court 12: “attached credit made to source… whose identity is security sensitive” | ||
Kuttner doesn’t believe the ‘wording’ on confidential sources is his. “I’m going to suggest you chose the wording on both these documents” | ||
Kuttner says he wouldn’t use words like “security sensitive”: Spens says Alexander payments were authorised by Coulson. | ||
Kuttner says he has no recollection of a conversation with Coulson.: “You made serious allegations against me” | ||
Kuttner: “Unfortunately Mr Goodman deceived the newspaper, it was an unknown event in my life, to which I was no party” | ||
Stuart Kuttner is Cross-Examined by the Prosecution | ||
Kuttner questioned on his meeting with Clive Goodman | ||
Andrew Edis QC for the Crown cross examines Kuttner – starting on ‘procedure” | ||
Edis turns back to the contemporaneous record of Goodman conversation: and why he emphasises “Told Andy about this from start” | ||
Kuttner explains he highlighted this section because it suggested Coulson was “in the know” about Mulcaire/Goodman Alexander project | ||
“It was a serious allegation against a senior member of our team” says Kuttner. He agrees if there was ‘validity’ to SIS allegation “crime” | ||
“Encouraging that person to commit a crime is a crime” says Edis. Kuttner remembers Shayler and him talking to the papers. | ||
Kuttner can’t remember what happened to Shayler. Says he can go back further. “All the way to the Profumo scandal” says Edis. | ||
Edis. “In your enormously long career you would have come across stories of members of the security services leaking, and being prosectued” | ||
Edis says this must have been “alarming information”: Kuttner “I was no analysing the consequences of what he was saying” | ||
Kuttner accepts that a lot of what Goodman said to him after his arrest “turned out to be true” | ||
“Who else was in on the payments… bullied… pressurised” also highlighted in Kuttner’s contemporaneous notes. | ||
Kuttner asked why he highlighted this too with vertical lines. “I thought it was important” he says. | ||
A vertical line by Kuttner on his contemporaneous note highlights “police register Glenn calling Nos” at 02 and Vodaphone | ||
“News of the World chain link” is highlighted in Kuttner document – because calls lead back to NI. | ||
Kuttner asterisked ‘targetting’ and concerns from police another NOTW journalist was at hacking too: “That’s Goodman’s version of events” | ||
Kuttner agrees that this other NOTW journalist named to Goodman and police was in a “senior position”: Edis: “Perhaps committing crimes?” | ||
Kuttner agrees but says “Clive Goodman tended to embellish” Edis: “He wasn’t embellishing about his arrest” “No,” says Goodman | ||
Another asterisk by Kuttner highlights Goodman’s financial concerns post arrest about “legal fees”. Sal Con- Salary will Continue. | ||
“He’d just told you he’d committed a crime” says Edis of Kuttner’s decision to continue with his salary. K: “You let the process proceed” | ||
Edis points out that what Goodman had told him was ground for instant dismissal. “These are my short notes” says Kuttner | ||
Edis asks if Kuttner used notebooks: he says yes. He shows Kuttner as spiral notebook. Kuttner confirms it is his. | ||
“As far as I know I left all my notebooks in NI archives” says Kuttner. | ||
“Yes because that’s what newspapermen do” says Edis of archiving notebooks. “This one certainly does” says Kuttner | ||
Edis explains the note of Kuttner’s talk with Goodman post arrest comes from Kuttner’s 2006 notebook. Break till 2pm | ||
Kuttner’s Notes of Conversation with Goodman Just After his Arrest http://wp.me/p1YHIt-F4 | ||
Stuart Kuttner Defence Witness – Lord Carey | ||
Lord Carey is questioned on his knowledge of Stuart Kuttner | ||
Brief interruption of Kuttner’s cross exam by Edis: Kuttner has a character witness former Archbishop (now Lord) George Carey #hackingtrial | ||
Lord Carey swears by almighty God that the evidence he will give “will be the whole truth and nothing but the truth” | ||
Lord Carey was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002: he knows the general nature of allegations against Kuttner. | ||
Carey says he came up with the idea of a book “Jesus 2000” and approached Rupert Murdoch “I want to get the story out” | ||
Carey says two people came to see him at Lambeth Palace was Stuart Kuttner: the answer came back from Murdoch that NOTW would run booklet | ||
Carey continued writing these articles with Kuttner beyond his retirement. They met often with Colin Myler: became friends. | ||
Carey says he would submit these articles with his son. Kuttner was a “very penetrating journalist” | ||
The articles Carey wrote were on moral matter, education, social issues like paedophilia. Kuttner was a “great encourager” | ||
“No payment would be made” for this 2000 booklet: “It was my gift… and his gift…” says Carey of Murdoch’s offer. | ||
Carey began to write columns for NOTW because “Stuart and I got on very well together” | ||
“I wouldn’t normally write for NOTW” says Carey but because of Kuttner “he’s a very good man”. | ||
Paper took an interest “in very poor people, in very poor conditions” says Carey of NOTW and a streets campaign. | ||
Carey says Kuttner was concerned with young journalists: “a man of deep integrity, loyal to his paper” | ||
“He is a man who’s Jewish ethic went through his life” says Carey: “A man I would trust. My wife and I became very close to him” | ||
Stuart Kuttner’s Cross-Examined by the Prosecution continues | ||
Kuttner questioned further on his meeting with Clive Goodman | ||
Andrew Edis QC continues with his cross examination of Stuart Kuttner: he’s back to the note of the Goodman conversation. | ||
“Your objective was to find out what the police were up to” says Edis of that conversation post arrest. Kuttner still rejects this. | ||
“I went to see him as a representative of the newspaper… to discover what was going on” says Kuttner. “Nothing wrong with finding out” | ||
“There seems to be an implication this was to protect the newspaper,” says Kuttner: “Not the central reason for my visit” | ||
As far as Kuttner knows, Goodman wasn’t paid out of his budget when he came out of prison – paid 12 months notice. | ||
Kuttner says he’s “not au fait with that aspect of his departure” about dismissal of Goodman for gross misconduct. | ||
Kuttner cannot recall anyone dismissed for gross or criminal misconduct. | ||
Kuttner doesn’t think the two further pay out to Goodman in 2007 came out of his budget. He wasn’t involved in that decision. | ||
Kuttner’s trust of journalists and payments | ||
Edis addresses the issue of Kuttner’s trust of other journalists. Kuttner agrees he expected a high degree of trust. | ||
“It must be remembered in journalism… that reporters are trusted to produce for publication material that may be inflammatory, C of C” | ||
Kuttner accepts he made payments “absolutely on trust” without making inquiries where the money went to or what it was used for. | ||
“I’m not a naturally suspicious person. I have no reason to believe my colleagues are duping or deceiving the paper” says Goodman | ||
Edis asks how Kuttner could deliver “value for money” if he didn’t know what contributors were being paid, and what for. | ||
Edis asks how Kuttner would check value for money for Mulcaire payments: Kuttner says if they provided “useful material… no concerns” | ||
“So you weren’t doing your job at all” says Edis. Kuttner: “I don’t accept your words but they are your words.” | ||
Edis cites prepared statement from Rebekah Brooks dated 17/07/11: managing editors responsible for “approval, monitoring, auditing payments | ||
These payments Brooks talks about in her police statement are about payments to private investigators. | ||
Kuttner says the “operational management responsibility” of managing editors is “possibly too wide a phrase” in Brooks’ statement | ||
“I don’t object to it, I think it is imprecise and of rather a wide nature” says Kuttner of Brooks’ note. He says it overstates his role. | ||
Edis asks if Brooks’ statement “understates the role of the editor”. Kuttner says he had the responsibility for editorial budget. | ||
“The company held the view editor had overall responsibility” says Kuttner. He reported to the editor, but also to managing directors & CEO | ||
Kuttner agrees that he was responsible for approval of payments to PIs, but not sure about “monitoring and auditing”: “not terms I’d apply” | ||
Kuttner says monitoring would be on “level” of spending – not concerned with who the payment was to, and what for. | ||
Kuttner doesn’t know what Edis means by “auditing” – but accepts that he would check NOTW was “within my knowledge… properly spent” | ||
Kuttner says NOTW generally did not use invoices. Instead there was a “self billing process” without waiting for invoices. | ||
Glen Mulcaire | ||
“What services did Glenn Mulcaire provide for NOTW?” asks Edis. “It now emerges… much to my distress… that provided phone interception” | ||
Edis asks what Kuttner “knew at the time” of Mulcaire’s services. | ||
“I was told he was… providing private investigator services: surveiilance, tracking down people” says Kuttner of Mulcaire. | ||
Edis asks “what did you actually end up with” of Mulcaire’s services. “I had no reason to think” wasn’t anything other than normal PI work | ||
“I wouldn’t be presented with the product of his work” says Kuttner. He cannot remember any paperwork spelling it out. | ||
Edis says of Kuttner’s payment to Mulcaire”you made one inquiry when he started…. & never made any other inquiries in the next five years” | ||
Edis says “trust” is not good enough when it comes to money. “It was your job to check” he tells Kuttner. Kuttner says trust is the core | ||
Kuttner accepts a leak on a “significant one fact story” is a “serious matter” | ||
Kuttner describes a leak he discovered was journalist working for the Times or Sunday Time who came once a week and ferreted around | ||
Kuttner says it “wasn’t fine” that this journalist sold NOTW stories to rival newspapers. | ||
“You can raise your eyebrows and you’re quite entitled” says Kuttner of Edis’ sceptical look. “Very unlikely staff team would betray paper” | ||
Kuttner explains the importance of secret room for a one fact secret story: “take it forward to a production stage off the floor” | ||
Edis asks if why Kuttner was getting another NOTW journos billing; “because there was mistrust” says Kuttner. Concerns of leak of Calum Best | ||
Kuttner concedes that getting a journalists phone billing shows a degree of “mistrust” among NOTW journalists. | ||
Paying Police Officers | ||
Kuttner says he always thought paying police was wrong, but didn’t necessarily know it was a crime. | ||
Kuttner says that “hypothetically” he would consider paying a police officer if they had proof of corruption of chief commissioner | ||
“At the very highest level… consideration must be given to it” says Kuttner of paying police officers: “It might be justifiable” | ||
Edis says that by 2003 Kuttner was “well aware” that paying police was a crime. Kuttner says he can’t remember. Edis gets new bundle. | ||
“I think the man I’m thinking of now is Nigel…. Neville Thurlbeck” Kuttner says he went to Milton Keynes Court. | ||
Kuttner remembers there “was a previous occasion a journalist had been tried and acquitted… if I didn’t deal with that earlier I apologise | ||
“You remember going to Milton Keynes Court, and you remember he was acquitted” says Edis. “He was charged with making payments to police” | ||
“That does come as a bit of new information to me” says Kuttner of Thurlbeck’s charge of corrupt payments to police in 2000. | ||
Summer 2000 Thurlbeck acquitted. Brooks emails Kuttner asking for a pay rise for Thurlbeck. | ||
Kuttner doesn’t remember trying to cut Thurlbeck’s pay rise on acquittal, but does remember him | ||
14/09/00 Kuttner sends an email to various NOTW staff including NGN MD Clive Milner: Milner replies “my reaction is to decline” | ||
Milner says Thurlbeck’s rise is “inappropriate” in 2000. “He’s not quite as relaxed about your budget as you said he was” says Edis. | ||
Kuttner talks of a “climate of concern” over staff costs at a senior management level: “different to spending money on a story” | ||
“I think he was entirely relaxed on the day to day budget, but not about a salary for staff” says Kuttner. | ||
Edis asks if Milner would be concerned about hiring someone on £100k. “If an outsider” says Kuttner: “Viewed very differently” | ||
Kuttner accepts that “justification” was needed. If he had mentioned Nine Consultancy, and could save costs, it would be accepted. | ||
“Why didn’t you ask him?” says Edis of asking Milner about Nine Consultancy: “It didn’t occur to me to do so..” says Kuttner. | ||
Saunders points out that both Brooks and Pannuccio had said in previous evidence Mulcaire’s contract should have gone up to NGN MD. | ||
“Did the editor tell you not to approach Mr Milner?” asks Edis. “Absolutely not,” says Kuttner. | ||
Kuttner’s medical condition | ||
Kuttner “I suggest getting in touch with my doctor, I don’t know if my lapses are through the passage of time or severe brain stem stroke” | ||
Kuttner says he has seen a neuro psychologist and consultant neurologists: they have both provided reports. | ||
Edis says 22/06/13 the consultant neurologist has provided a report. Edis asks Kuttner has decided not to place these documents before jury | ||
15 minute break | ||
Private Investigators | ||
Edis moves onto Kuttner’s own defence file for the rest of the afternoon: he has three documents he wants to put in this bundle. | ||
Edis inserts a big spreadsheet into Kuttner’s defence bundle. | ||
A 05/07/00 NOTW memorandum is also inserted by the prosecution into the defence bundle | ||
Edis turns to a list Kuttner created in Jan July 1998-9 of private investigators | ||
Kuttner thinks this is “Pre Mulcaire” list of Private Investigator sent to Miskiw 06/10/99 – telling journalists to do more work themselves | ||
Edis asks Kuttner if he can remember a conversation with Miskiw about using Mulcaire to save money | ||
“I believe someone came to me… and said he could save money by using one inquiry agent” says Kuttner. Edis: “Stop using these people?” | ||
Kuttner says the “business case” for Mulcaire was trying to save money on Private Investigators. | ||
Edis asks if the plan in 2001 to stop using other PIs: “I accepted in my mind I accepted there would be occasions” other used says Kuttner | ||
Kuttner confirms NOTW kept on using Whittamore’s JJ services two years late: Mr Stafford he can’t remember. | ||
Kuttner says Christine Hart was a freelance journalist used by Greg Miskiw “who tended to be rather expensive” | ||
“The most expensive item is Legal resources and intelligence” says Edis of PI costs to NOTW in 1999 | ||
Edis cites a 01/08/06 contributor payment request to Derek Webb: “his specialism was surveillance”. Mark Newbie Robinson and James Stafford | ||
Kuttner says “it’s apparent the paper was still using” J Stafford 7 years after he planned reduction of private investigators at NOTW. | ||
Kuttner confirms that Derek Webb was used over a number of years, and he was paid a substantial number of payments from NOTW. | ||
Jury shown Derek Webb payments from 2003-2011: a total of £249.239 | ||
Edis points out that Kuttner approved most these payments to Webb until 2009 | ||
“How did that happen if you’d done this deal to put over the work to Euro Research and 9 Consultancy” asks Edis of costs of Webb from 2003 | ||
“My job was to oversee the editorial budgets” says Kuttner: “to do my best to contain department spending within their annual budgets” | ||
“You had actively approved the commitment in 2001…. amounting to over £100k of Mulcaire’s company, to save money,” says Edis | ||
Edis says wouldn’t he point out that they’d done a deal with 9 Consultancy. “A long time ago… but not an isolated event” says Edis. | ||
“I can’t recall, sir” says Kuttner to Edis of reducing the cost of private investigators at NI. | ||
Edis then turns to the NOTW costs to Private Investigator Paul Gadd: from November 2004. Kuttner cannot recall him. | ||
Kuttner looks at the Gadd payments that from 2004 to 2010: “perhaps some of these payments were signed off by the news desk” | ||
Kuttner says he might not have seen these one system is computerised. But SKUT initials occur a lot as well as news desk editors | ||
Edis reiterates a lot of money was “paid off to Gadd”. “It doesn’t appear your approval of Mulcaire’s contract saved money” | ||
Edis suggests Mulcaire was being recruited to provide an “additional service”: Kuttner says “if he was it was absolutely without my approval | ||
“If this had been a money saving device, you’d be monitoring savings on private investigators” says Edis. | ||
Kuttner says these allegations he knew about phone hacking is “was without foundation” | ||
Kuttner: “I’ve spent a lifetime in journalist… intercepting voicemails is a technique that has never ever featured in my work or my mind” | ||
Saunders asks about how “intrusive” the surveillance NOTW employed was. | ||
Kuttner talks of two hypothetical people having an affair: “Webb and possibly Mulcaire…. would watch the house” | ||
“The process to secure photographs for evidence should be considered separately whether fit for publication” says Kuttner. | ||
Kuttner says they might use a lip reader for a major public event – such as the Queen, but not the Goodman claim of Harry at Wedding. | ||
Kuttner says he’s “not familiar with, or ever advocate” binology: even though he authorised an invoice with that topic. | ||
Documents discussed in today’s #hackingtrial – Kuttner’s Notes of Conversation with Goodman Just After his Arrest http://wp.me/p1YHIt-F4 |
Note: All the defendants deny all the charges. The trial continues.
Related Articles
Kuttner Notes of Conversation with Goodman Just After his Arrest
Some of the Mysteries of Phone Hacking – Unlocked
Mulcaire Sanctioned by Spooks – Malign Influence of NI Lawyer on Goodmans Legal Team
Texts to Rebekah Brooks from Tony Blair on the Eve of her Arrest
Brooks – Coulson email exchange on Goodman Mulcaire guilty pleas: It is all going so well
Previous Posts
Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 7 Apr
Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 8 Apr
Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 9 Apr
Links: The Trial So Far | Full Trial Summary | Indexed Evidence | Breaking News
Pingback: Kuttner’s Notes of Conversation with Goodman Just After his Arrest | Live Tweeting the hacking trial
Pingback: Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 11 Apr | Live Tweeting the hacking trial
Pingback: Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 14 Apr | Live Tweeting the hacking trial
Pingback: Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 15 Apr | Live Tweeting the hacking trial