Jury in the original phone-hacking trial could not agree a verdict on corrupt payments charges and were discharged

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is to face a retrial in June over allegations he paid for confidential royal phone directories from corrupt police officers.

Coulson, who left the paper in 2007 after a phone-hacking scandal and went on to become David Cameron’s head of communications, is accused of approving payments for the phone books in 2003 and 2005.

The books contained details of the royal household, and were allegedly sold to the paper’s royal editor Clive Goodman in 2003 and 2005.

Goodman is also facing a retrial.

Coulson, who edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2006, was jailed for 18 months last July for overseeing a culture of phone hacking at the Sunday tabloid.

The jury in the marathon hacking trial could not agree a verdict on the separate charges about corrupt payments and the jurors were discharged.

Mr Justice Saunders, who presided over the hacking trial, said Coulson and Goodman would stand trial again on 29 June on two charges of misconduct in public office.

Coulson was released from prison in November last year after serving two months of his term in category A Belmarsh prison and at an open prison.

Charges that Coulson and Goodman had allegedly purchased royal phone books from police officers were brought after Scotland Yard was handed emails from their former employer, News International, in which the royal reporter requested payment for “a rare and just printed palace staff phone book” from “a palace cop”.

He and Goodman were accused of paying £1,000 to a police officer at St James’s Palace for a copy of the royal directory known as the Green Book. It was alleged Goodman organised the deal in January 2003, and Coulson approved payment by email.

They face a similar claim from June 2005, of paying another £1,000 for another internal royal directory.

Coulson, of Hart Hill, Charing, Kent, and Goodman, of Woodham Lane, Woodham, Addlestone, Surrey, deny two counts of misconduct in a public office.

A case management hearing will be held in April, with a trial set to begin on 29 June.