So who is not telling the whole truth? James Murdoch says he was given 'consistent' assurances by NOTW executives that phone hacking was NOT widespread



Media boss said he 'struggled' to understand why he was not told it was rife among the staff

Says he was not aware of a note from Clive Goodman claiming phone hacking was more widespread

Former News International chairman James Murdoch adjusts his tie as he arrives at the High Court

James Murdoch was given ‘consistent’ assurances by senior News of the World executives that there was no widespread evidence of phone hacking, he told the Leveson Inquiry today.

Mr Murdoch said he has ‘struggled’ to understand why in 2007 Colin Myler, the News of the World editor, and Tom Crone, the paper’s legal manager, did not tell him that it was rife among the staff.



He said: ‘Why wouldn't they tell me? They didn't. I don't want to conjecture but I think that must be it, that I would say 'cut out the cancer' and there was some desire not to do that.’

He said: 'Their assurances to me were consistent as I said, the newspaper had been investigated thoroughly that no evidence had been found.



'That was entirely consistent from Mr Crone and Mr Myler all the way through.'



But previously, both Mr Myler and Mr Crone have both said that Mr Murdoch has been 'disingenuous' about how much he knew of how widespread phone hacking was at the paper, following the jailing of former Royal Editor Clive Goodman in January 2007.



They claim that they made Mr Murdoch aware of widespread hacking within the organisation as long ago as 2008.



Mr Murdoch, who appeared before the inquiry into press standards in a grey suit and blue tie, is based in America as deputy chief operating officer of parent company News Corporation after stepping down as chairman of News International - the UK publisher of the Sun and Times titles - in February.

He also resigned from his post as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC earlier this month.

Mr Myler - who was appointed editor in 2007 after Andy Coulson resigned following the original scandal - had told the inquiry at an earlier hearing that he felt 'there were bombs under the newsroom floor'.

Mr Murdoch went on to talk about a meeting on May 27 2008, with himself and Mr Myler - now editor-in-chief of the Murdoch rival paper the New York Daily News - where they were discussing the final settlement with Mr Goodman.

Mr Murdoch moved to distance himself from the day-to-day workings of the News of the World, admitting he sometimes read the Sun and read the News of the World 'but not all of it'.

Mr Murdoch is recorded in the meeting as saying to wait for 'silk's view' (legal view) on what to do next because there were handwritten notes showing Mr Goodman had 'sprayed about allegations, horrid process'.

Mr Jay suggested that the note was Mr Goodman saying that the practice was more widespread - but Mr Murdoch says he was not aware of these allegations.



Mr Murdoch was also asked about an email chain discussing phone hacking and former head of the Professional Footballers' Association Gordon Taylor's £350,000 settlement claiming it was 'rife' at News International.



Mr Taylor's phone was hacked and he received £425,000 in a secret settlement with the firm in 2008.



Mr Murdoch said he did not read all the emails in the chain as he was busy with his children on a Saturday, but did reply to it.



Murdoch said he left Mr Crone and Mr Myler to organise the settlement and he described this decision to leave these senior managers in charge as 'reasonable'.



He then points out to the inquiry that there 'was not a proactive desire to bring me up to speed' on the phone hacking settlement with Mr Taylor.

NOTW editor Colin Myler and News International head of legal affairs Tom Crone appearing at the Leveson Inquiry in September last year. Mr Murdoch says he was not told by them phone hacking was rife among staff

He says they did not give him 'sufficient information' to go and turn over a whole lot of stones' and insisted again there was no evidence the practice was widespread.

Later, Mr Murdoch recalled the moment he was told the Guardian newspaper had printed a story giving the first evidence that phone hacking was more widespread.



He said was called about it as he was in New York and claims he was told that 'it wasn't true' and that 'there was no other evidence'. He says he was also told it had been 'investigated to death and that it was a smear.



Mr Murdoch also insisted today that he never saw the so-called 'For Neville' email and was not shown it at a meeting in June 2008 with Mr Myler and Mr Crone - both of whom put forward a different version of events.



That email was sent by a junior News of the World reporter to Mr Mulcaire in 2008, and it contained the illegally obtained transcripts of voicemails belonging to football union boss Gordon Taylor.



The email is regarded as proof that phone hacking at the paper was not restricted to Mr Goodman.

Earlier in the hearing, Mr Murdoch tried again to distance himself from the scandal that engulfed his father's empire.

He admitted controls put in place at News International to identify legal risk in news gathering practices had failed.

H e said: 'With respect to newsgathering practices it's self-evident in hindsight whatever controls were in place failed.'



But he added: 'However, there were senior legal managers working with the newsrooms... at the time I didn't have the view whether they were insufficient or not.'

Mr Murdoch, sporting noticeably longer hair today, went on: ' We had a management board where senior executives would meet regularly… and there was ample opportunity to be able to discuss these issues and surface them.

'I think I would have had a reasonable expectation that having a legal manager so close to the newsroom was a protection that it ultimately proved not to provide.'

Mr Murdoch admitted that he sometimes read the Sun and read the News of the World - 'but not all of it'.



He said any ethical and legal risk was 'very much in the hands of the editor' and that he was not the person who decided what information was published.



He said he remembers 'receiving assurances' about ethics and practices at the paper on several occasions.



The media boss also said the paper should not have run its story falsely alleging that former Formula 1 boss Max Mosley had a 'sick Nazi orgy'.

He said he was told by Mr Myler that the information was correct and in the public interest.

Mr Mosley was awarded a record £60,000 in privacy damages at the High Court over the March 2008 News of the World story about his sex life.



Mr Murdoch agreed that News International also had to pay 'substantial' costs, which he said was a 'cause for concern'.



'The story shouldn't have been run,' he told the inquiry.



His father Rupert Murdoch, who is still chairman and chief executive of News International's parent company News Corp., will appear before the inquiry tomorrow.

Revelations that reporters at Sunday tabloid had hacked into the phone of a teenage murder victim led the Murdochs to close the 168-year-old newspaper.