News International legal manager leaves amid hacking scandal

News International legal manager Tom Crone has left the company following the phone hacking and corruption scandals that have engulfed the company over the past week.

A spokesperson for News International said it was unable to confirm whether Crone resigned or was sacked.

Last week, News International chairman James Murdoch implied that Crone had misled him about the extent of phone hacking prior to his authorisation of a £1 million out-of-court payment to Gordon Taylor, the former chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association whose phone had been hacked by News of the World journalists.

Crone, who has worked for the company for 26 years, was responsible for News International's internal 2007 report into phone hacking. He later reported to MPs that the practice did not go beyond the actions of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and royal editor Clive Goodman, who were both jailed for voicemail interception in 2007.

Crone told the culture, media and sport select committee in 2009: "I tasked myself with finding out what exactly had happened; what was known, who knew what other documents there might be.

"At no stage during their investigation or our investigation did any evidence arise that the problem of accessing by our reporters, or complicity of accessing by our reporters, went beyond the Goodman/Mulcaire situation."

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).