Phone-hacking report: Myler stands by 'accurate and consistent' evidence

Former editor of the News of the World Colin Myler has said he stands by his evidence to the culture select committee, after its phone-hacking report accused him of misleading MPs.

The committee's report also unanimously concluded that former legal manager Tom Crone and former executive chairman of News International Les Hinton had misled the committee on phone hacking.

MPs also claimed that "corporately" News International had misled parliament and ignored "evidence of widespread wrongdoing".

Both Tom Crone and Colin Myler were accused of having "misled the committee by answering questions falsely about their knowledge of evidence that other News of the World employees had been involved in phone hacking and other wrongdoing".

In a statement Myler, who is now editor of New York Daily News, said: "While I respect the work that the Select Committee has carried out, I stand by the evidence that I gave the Committee. I have always sought to be accurate and consistent in what I have said to the Committee.

"The conclusions of the Committee have, perhaps inevitably, been affected by the fragmented picture which has emerged from the various witnesses over successive appearances and by the constraints within which the Committee had to conduct its procedure.

"These issues remain the subject of a police investigation and the Leveson judicial inquiry and I have every confidence that they will establish the truth in the fullness of time."

Former News International executive chairman Les Hinton also issued a statement, according to reports, in which he brands accusations that he was "complicit" in a cover-up at the company as "unfounded, unfair and erroneous".

Hinton was accused of having been "complicit in the cover-up at News international" and "making misleading statements and giving a misleading picture to this committee".

In particular Hinton was accused in the report of having misled the committee in 2009 "in not telling the truth about payments to Clive Goodman and his role in authorising them, including the payment of his legal fee".

"He also misled the committee about the extent of his knowledge of allegations that phone hacking extended beyond Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire to others at the News of the World," the report adds.

In a statement published by news outlets including the Guardian and the Telegraph Hinton said:

"I am shocked and disappointed by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee's allegations that I have misled parliament and was 'complicit' in a cover-up.

"I refute these accusations utterly. I have always been truthful in my dealings with the committee and its findings are unfounded, unfair and erroneous.

"To be clear, not once in my testimony before the committee did I seek to mislead it or pass blame for decisions to others. Nor did I participate in a 'cover-up'. Furthermore, there is nothing in my evidence to support the committee's findings that I did.

"I will be writing to John Whittingdale, the chair of the committee, to object formally."

Individually Tom Crone was accused of misleading parliament in 2009 "by giving a counter-impression of the significance of confidentiality in the Gordon Taylor settlement".

The report adds that Crone also "sought to mislead the committee about the commissioning of surveillance".

Tom Crone had not issued a statement at the time of writing.

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