News Corp Is being Sued by Private Investagator
From The Wall Street Journal: online.wsj.com
By PAUL SONNE
LONDON—The private investigator at the center of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal has filed a lawsuit against News Corp., claiming the company’s tabloid-newspaper unit breached a contract when it stopped paying his legal fees.
Glenn Mulcaire, who was on the tabloid’s payroll, received a six-month prison sentence in 2007 for phone hacking and is now facing a new criminal probe and civil lawsuits related to the matter. In a case filed Wednesday in U.K. High Court, Mr. Mulcaire claimed News Corp. agreed in June 2010 to indemnify him against legal costs and damages, but then broke the obligation last month upon terminating the guarantee.
Mr. Mulcaire’s lawyer declined to comment.
News International, the U.K. newspaper unit of News Corp., said Mr. Mulcaire’s claim would be “vigorously contested.”
News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.
The dispute adds Mr. Mulcaire to a growing list of former News Corp. allies who have fallen out with the company as it faces three criminal investigations, government inquiries and a raft of civil lawsuits. Earlier this week, former legal advisers and a former News of the World editor criticized News Corp. in evidence published by a parliamentary committee investigating phone hacking.
News of Mr. Mulcaire’s filing came as U.K. police arrested the News of the World’s former U.S. editor and showbiz reporter as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into phone hacking by the now-closed tabloid.
Police on Thursday arrested James Desborough, most recently the paper’s U.S. editor and previously its London-based showbiz reporter, a person familiar with the matter said. The 38-year-old journalist was later released without charge.
The Metropolitan Police, known as Scotland Yard, confirmed a 38-year-old man had been arrested and released but didn’t identify him.
Scotland Yard declined to comment further.
Mr. Desborough couldn’t be reached for comment.
His arrest relates to allegations that the News of the World illegally intercepted the cellphone voice mails of celebrities, politicians and crime victims, through a practice known as phone hacking. Police also are probing possible police bribery by News of the World staff.
Mr. Desborough joined the News of the World in 2005 as a showbiz and news reporter based in London. He won Showbiz Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2009 and shortly after was appointed the paper’s editor in the U.S., where he focused on Hollywood. He was living in Los Angeles when News Corp. closed the tabloid in July but has since returned to London.
It isn’t clear what part of Mr. Desborough’s career is under scrutiny. Most instances of phone hacking that have become public occurred during or before 2007, when the imprisonment of Mr. Mulcaire and a News of the World reporter for phone hacking discouraged other journalists from engaging in the practice.
The arrest marks the 13th police have made since reopening their probe into phone hacking at the tabloid in January. Others arrested have included Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, former editors of the paper. No one has been charged.
Before joining the News of the World, Mr. Desborough worked in television, another person familiar with the matter said. After joining the paper, he covered topics including Beatles star Paul McCartney’s divorce, singer Michael Jackson’s death and golfer Tiger Woods’s extramarital affairs.
—Jeanne Whalen contributed to this article