Examination of Witnesses (Question Numbers
1540-1549)
MR TOM
CRONE AND
MR COLIN
MYLER
21 JULY 2009
Q1540 Paul Farrelly: Having pleaded
guilty and having been convicted?
Mr Crone: Ask an employment lawyer.
You are asking the wrong person. If you do not get the process
right, as I understand it, you are going to have to pay a bit
of money.
Q1541 Paul Farrelly: Would you let
us know the grounds on which—
Mr Crone: This is the law that
you guys have passed and we are stuck with it.
Q1542 Paul Farrelly: As well as the
amount, would you let us know the grounds on which your employment
lawyers advised you that he still had a claim against you?
Mr Myler: Mr Farrelly, I was just
going to say, in all seriousness, the human resources laws today
with employment are incredibly complicated, and indeed, I think,
allow people to do rather extraordinary things and still come
back on an employer and say: "But you still haven't got a
right to fire me." There are extraordinary examples out there
of people receiving payment where, under most people in the street's
view, would be unreasonable, but you are dealing with law.
Q1543 Paul Farrelly: If we have the
details then we will find out more about this extraordinary case,
will we not, so that we can better try and grapple with it. Mr
Myler, can I ask you this final question: the PCC issued a report
based on your evidence that said that Mr Mulcaire had a second
clandestine relationship with the paper?
Mr Myler: I am sorry?
Q1544 Paul Farrelly: The PCC said
in its report, based on your evidence, that Mr Mulcaire had a
second, clandestine relationship with the paper through Clive
Goodman. We have seen, through the documents that the Guardian
produced to us last week and which became evident to you in April
2008, that there were at least two further relationships with
the newspaper. Have you taken any steps with the PCC to correct
the record?
Mr Myler: I think, as Mr Crone
will explain, the Taylor settlement bound us and binds us on a
matter of confidentiality. We are between a rock and a hard place.
So the Court has bound us by a legal obligation. You have heard
from Mr Crone and me about what happened, and no further evidence
emerging. That is where we are.
Q1545 Paul Farrelly: The answer is,
quite clearly, you did not take any steps to correct the record?
Mr Myler: With the PCC?
Q1546 Paul Farrelly: With the PCC.
Mr Myler: No, no.
Q1547 Paul Farrelly: Mr Crone, can
I ask you—this is the final question, Chairman—Mr
Hinton came to us and gave similar evidence that Mr Myler gave
to the PCC. As the Legal Adviser for News International, did it
ever occur to you to come back to the Committee in the light of
what you discovered in the Taylor case, again, to correct the
record?
Mr Crone: I do not see how I could
have without breaching the obligation of confidentiality to Mr
Taylor that had been agreed. I do not see how I could have.
Q1548 Adam Price: One very specific
question: in the appeal that you heard, Mr Myler, with Clive Goodman,
did he produce or did he mention that he had in his possession
any email messages from Andrew Coulson that were material to this
case?
Mr Myler: Not that I can recall,
no.
Q1549 Chairman: Thank you both.
Mr Myler: Thank you.
| 
