Senior executives at Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper group were told by their own barrister that there was strong evidence of illegality at the News of the World in June 2008, three years before they admitted to widespread phone hacking at the tabloid.
Newly published documents also appear to show that Colin Myler, NoW’s then editor, told an external lawyer that he believed James Murdoch would tell him to “get rid” of journalists and “cut out [the] cancer” afflicting the newspaper if he knew about it.
However, the documents, released by MPs investigating the phone-hacking scandal, do not show that James Murdoch was aware of the brewing crisis at one of his father’s most treasured titles.