Murdoch 'confident' he did not view 'email chain' on Taylor case

News International chairman James Murdoch has sought to "reaffirm" his evidence to the culture select committee today after an email exchange between him and former News of the World editor Colin Myler from 7 June 2008 emerged.

The email, which has been published by the culture select committee today as further evidence in its phone hacking investigation, also contains a "chain" of emails going back in time, the first of which refers to allegations from Gordon Taylor, who took out a phone hacking lawsuit against the title, that "what happened to him is/was rife throughout the organisation".

The document was submitted to the committee by law firm Linklaters on behalf of News International's Management and Standards Committee (MSC).

Murdoch has issued a letter to the committee in response, in which he insists he is "confident" that he "did not review the full email chain at the time, or afterwards".

The most recent section of the chain of emails show Murdoch responding to a request from former editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, for "five minutes" with him on the Tuesday in relation to the "Gordon Taylor … case".

In his request email to Murdoch, sent at 2.31pm on 7 June, Myler tells Murdoch "it is as bad as we feared".

In Murdoch's response, which comes a couple of minutes later and is the most recent email presented in the "chain", Murdoch says he is "in during the afternoon" but is also "home tonight after seven and most of the day tomorrow" if Myler wants to speak to him sooner.

Below this email exchange there are further messages shown to have been passed between other individuals, the next in the chain being an email from Tom Crone to Colin Myler, also on 7 June at 12.30pm, which discusses the case and "doing a deal with Taylor".

Prior to this, and presented as the oldest email in the chain, there is an email from Julian Pike, a partner at law firm Farrer & Co, to Tom Crone, sent on 6 June 2008, which refers to a conversation with Taylor's lawyer Mark Lewis.

In Pike's email he says Taylor "wants to demonstrate that what happened to him is/was rife throughout the organisation".

"He wants to correct the paper telling Parliamentary enquiries that this was not happening when it was [NGN's line having been there was a rogue trader in CG]".

In a letter to the committee in reference to the new material Murdoch said he only became "aware" of the email on 7 December this year "when it was passed to me by the MSC".

"It now appears that Mr Myler sent an email to me on Saturday afternoon, 7 June 2008, in order to request a short meeting the following Tuesday (10 June 2008) for an update on the Gordon Taylor (Professional Football Association) case.

"Given the timing of my response, just over two minutes after Mr Myler had sent his email to me, and the fact that I typically received emails on my BlackBerry on weekends, I am confident that I did not review the full email chain at the time or afterwards, nor do I recall a conversation with Mr Myler over that weekend".

He added that instead he "would have relied on the oral briefing on 10 June 2008 that I have previously described in my testimony before the committee".

In his letter to the committee chair MP John Whittingdale, Murdoch added that he wanted to "reaffirm" his previous testimony to the committee "that I was not aware of evidence that either pointed to widespread wrongdoing or indicated that further investigation was necessary".

"I apologise this has only now come to light and that it is being brought to the committee at this late stage of your enquiry".

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