Culture, Media and Sport CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by Les Hinton, former Executive Chairman, News International

Thank you for your letter of 16 August 2011. Your letter asks whether, in light of recent submissions to your Committee, in particular the letter from Clive Goodman, I wish to reconsider or make any additional comments on the evidence I gave to the Committee during my appearances in March 2007 and September 2009.

I am aware that the Committee has a considerable amount of material to consider and that its investigations are ongoing. I have therefore endeavoured in this response to be concise and to focus on the fundamental issues at hand.

I appeared before the Committee on 6 March 2007 and 15 September 2009. On each occasion, I answered all questions truthfully and to the best of my knowledge and recollection.

When I appeared before the Committee on 6 March 2007, I said I believed Mr Goodman was the only person at the News of the World who knew about the illegal conduct that led to his imprisonment, but that investigation was continuing under the new editor, Colin Myler.

Mr Myler’s previous evidence refers to the investigations and reviews that took place prior to, and after, his arrival at the newspaper.

The allegations in Mr Goodman’s 2 March 2007 letter were made in response to my letter to him dated 5 February 2007 summarily terminating his employment. You have already been given evidence that these allegations were taken seriously and investigated.

You have also been told in recent evidence that inquiries were made by Mr Myler and Daniel Cloke, Group Human Resources Director, as well as the review of 2,500 emails by Mr Cloke and Jon Chapman, Director of Legal Affairs for News International. All three were experienced, capable and respected senior employees, and none had been involved in any of the matters at issue. The law firm of Harbottle & Lewis LLP was then retained, and the results of their work are set forth in their letter dated 29 May 2007.

The recent submissions, including those by Mr Myler, Mr Chapman, and Harbottle & Lewis LLP, refer in greater detail to the actions that followed receipt of Mr Goodman’s letter. As for Mr Goodman's assertion that he had been promised he could come back to a job at the newspaper “if [he] did not implicate the paper or any of its staff in [his] mitigation plea,” I had no reason to believe that his allegation was accurate, and am not aware of any evidence to support it. Accordingly, as I testified before the Committee in 2009, no evidence was provided to me that the conduct of Mr Goodman had spread beyond him.

I hope the Committee finds these comments helpful. While grateful for the opportunity offered to reconsider my previous evidence and to make additional comments, as my evidence was given honestly, and as I left News International in December 2007, I have nothing further to add.

31 August 2011