Private eye describes NoW instruction to pose as journalist

Private investigator Derek Webb described today how his controversial obtaining of a press card from the NUJ was part of a ruse to get around tighter restrictions on the use of investigators at the News of the World.

Giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry, Webb said he was told by the tabloid's chief reporter that there had been a "hiccup" with the use of investigators after Glenn Mulcaire was arrested and jailed, and that he would have to terminate his investigator's license and join the journalism union instead.

Webb said he was also told to change his company name from "Shadow Watch" and to refer to himself as a freelance journalist.

Webb first started working for the News of the World in 2003 after he had retired from his role as a surveillance expert with Hertfordshire police, and tracked celebrities and politicians for the tabloid. But after he was arrested separately in 2007 and charged with aiding and abetting misconduct in public office, Webb was told by then-News of the World legal manager Tom Crone that he would have to stop working for the title.

When the case against him was not pursued, he contacted News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and he was re-employed, but with several key differences.

Webb said today today that Thurlbeck told him there had been "a little bit of a hiccup" and that he would need to terminate his private investigator's license and obtain a press card from the NUJ.

He said he was also told to change his company name – which began as Silent Shadow Services as had changed to Shadow Watch – to Derek Webb Media. He was also told to change the title on his invoices to freelance journalist.

The instructions Webb was given followed commitments made by then-News of the World editor Colin Myler to forbid the use of private investigators by News of the World staff.

Myler sent a letter to all staff on 7 May 2007 regarding a change in practices over cash payments and the use of investigators. But Webb told the inquiry that he was never made aware of the letter or the apparent change in policy.

He also contradicted testimony from Myler and Crone, telling the court it was made clear to him by Thurlbeck that the instructions to change his company name, terminate his investigators' license and register with the journalists' union were related to the arrest earlier that year of Glenn Mulcaire and royal reporter Clive Goodman and the restrictions that followed regarding the use of investigators.

Webb was asked by inquiry counsel Carine Patry Hoskins whether there was any change to the nature of his work for the News of the World to accompany his apparent change in his status.

"Did you suddenly become a journalist?", she asked, to which Webb replied "no". He also said that there had been no change in the nature of his work and that he was not sent a copy of the PCC code, which provides guidelines for journalists on ethical practice.

Myler told the inquiry yesterday that Webb's NUJ card had made him "more aware of his responsibilities while working for the News of the World".

"There was no difference," Webb said today. "I didn't feel any different."

In a submission to the inquiry last month, when Webb's press card first came to light, NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet called the move "breathtakingly cynical".

Former legal manager Tom Crone also gave evidence to the inquiry yesterday, and said that he had no idea during his time at the paper that Webb was anything other than a freelance journalist.

But Webb said he was "certain" that Crone was present in a meeting prior to his 2007 dismissal, when he was employed solely as a private investigator under the name "Silent Shadow".

Webb did confirm that he had never been directly instructed by Myler, and said that his assignments always came from the newsdesk.

He said that there was no change in the nature of those assignments when Myler took over as editor from Andy Coulson, who resigned and went on to be made David Cameron's director of communications. He told the court that he continued to be instructed to follow celebrities and politicians "around 85 per cent of the time", with no indication that his work as an investigator was to be curtailed.

Webb also described in detail the nature of his surveillance work for the News of the World, which included secretly filming the family of a solicitor connected to the hacking case, and told the inquiry that he had never been sent a transcript of an email, telephone conversation or voicemail message with his briefing notes.

News International, which owned the News of the World before the tabloid was closed, declined to comment.

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