Andy Coulson yesterday said he had thought a story suggesting Milly Dowler had gone to work in a factory in the midlands while a major police hunt was under way for the missing schoolgirl was "nonsense".
In the witness box for the second day at the hacking trial, the former editor of the News of the World said he did not recall reading the story, published three weeks after she had vanished in 2002, nor did he know that the apparent breakthrough the paper had got had come from a hacked voicemail.
Mr Coulson, who at the time was deputy editor on the paper, denied knowledge of hacking other than “in pretty vague terms” and said that, if he had known any of his staff were involved in the unlawful activity, he would have viewed it as “intrusive” and “lazy journalism”.
Mr Coulson told jurors at the Old Bailey central criminal court in London that he remembered someone in his office at the time suggesting that Milly Dowler, who was reported missing on March 21st, 2002, was “going to take a job in a factory”.
“That’s what I remember . . . I’m very clear about my memory of it. I thought it was nonsense,” Mr Coulson said.
“Why?” asked his defence counsel, Timothy Langdale.
“Because Milly Dowler was a 13-year-old schoolgirl and she was a 13-year-old who, for all the wrong reasons, had been pictured across all the national newspapers,” Mr Coulson said.
“The family had released video footage of her which was very moving and used widely by probably every news broadcaster in the country. The idea that she could move north and then take a job in a factory just seemed ludicrous.”
Belief at the time
He said the paper's belief at the time was that "very sadly the most likely probability was that Milly Dowler was dead".
The jury has previously heard that Milly Dowler’s phone was hacked on April 12th, 2002, and that the tabloid reported two days later “a new twist” in the search for her “after messages had been sent to her mobile phone”, including one about a possible job at the Epson factory in Telford. It has also heard that the tabloid sent at least eight reporters and photographers to the ink-cartridge factory hoping to land a scoop.
Mr Coulson said he did not remember reading the story at the time but, reading it now, with the reference to “messages” about a possible job offer in Telford, he did not necessarily infer hacking. “I do not think it is clear. I think I might have concluded that it may have come from sources, possibly even police sources,” he said.
"The first thing is, I do not remember the story," he said, explaining to jurors that he might have thought police were involved in the story because there was no "exclusive" or " News of the World investigates" logo on the story. That suggested to him the story may have been a tip that had been passed to several Sunday papers.
"If you had been made aware that somebody at the instigation of the NoW was accessing voicemail on Milly Dowler's phone, what would your reaction have been?" asked Mr Langdale.
Mr Coulson replied: “My instinctive concern was that this was interference with a police investigation.”
Asked if he would have been told about a team being sent to Telford, he replied: “Not necessarily, that’s the news editor’s job.”
The News of the World changed its first-edition account of the Dowler story and, by the third edition, was reporting that the police believed that the job-offer message was the work of a "sick hoaxer" who had also contacted BBC's Crimewatch television programme.
The story was also moved from page nine to page 30, replacing what Mr Coulson described as a "glamorous" story featuring a picture of Star Trek actor Jolene Blalock.
Mr Coulson repeated that he had not read the article and believed he would not have thought a story about a hoax merited a prominent slot in the paper.
Both Mr Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have denied a conspiracy to hack phones.
The trial continues.
– ( Guardian service)