News of the World Royal Editor Hacked Kate Middleton 155 Times
A reporter for for the News of the World admitted to snooping on Kate Middleton’s voicemails on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day over 155 times, the Guardian reported.
Clive Goodman, the papers formal royal editor, revealed for the first time that he had directly hacked the phone of Prince William, adding that the police failed to ask him one question about it in the eight years he was arrested on such charges.
Goodman told the jury he hacked Prince William thirty five times, Prince Harry nine times, and the Duchess of Cambridge one hundred fifty five times. Clive stated no authorities or police had questioned him at the time of his arrest in 2006, or any time proceeding.
“I’ve never been asked before. The Metropolitan police, Crown Prosecution Service did not ask me these questions in 2006 and 2007. I’ve never been asked by any inquiry any time about this,” Goodman told the Guardian.
He first hacked Kate Middleton on December 21, 2005, he told the jury. From there he continued to hack her on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (day after Christmas). Goodman admitted that the first hack of Prince William was to have taken place at the end of January 2006.
Goodman told jurors: “I’m really not the slightest bit proud of this. I don’t want anyone to think I’m not ashamed.”
He also stated he hacked the phone of Kate Waddington, the personal assistant to Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, 160 times.
Goodman noted that Glenn Mulcaire, who was arrested in 2006 for hacking various members of the royal household, that “Virtually every story in the paper was ground through the Glenn Mulcaire mill.”
Timothy Langdale QC, a reporter acting for the papers former editor told the Guardian, “Now that you are asking them [the questions], I’m quite happy to get them out there and get everything in the open.” He stated he was begin as “honest and open” as he could be on the matter. “My entire life has been exposed. I’ve never been asked these questions … Anyone who wants to ask me questions, they will get straight answers as indeed you are getting today.”
Langdale told jurors that Kate Middleton, who was dating Prince William at the time, that in 2005 Middleton was a “figure of increasing importance around the royal family. There were discussions of her and Prince William marrying, moving in, settling down. She had started receiving royal status around the royal family.”
Jurors at the Old Bailey court had previously heard that Kate Middleton and Prince Harry has been hacked. They had seen emails of related to the alleged hacks back in 2006, but Goodman’s evidence was the first time it had been admitted.
The trial has already heard personal messages Prince William left for Kate Middleton in 2006, where he called her “babykins”, which were illegally obtained by the News of the World.
Goodman was jailed previously in 2005 after admitting to begin involved in the hacking of three royal aides including, Prince Charles’s communication secretary Paddy Harverson, the prince’s aide, Helen Asprey, and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, private secretary to Princes William and Harry.
Jurors were reminded that Goodman claimed that Coulson told him to tell police he was acting as a “lone wolf” and that he had gone “off the reservation” when questioned about his activities in 2006.
Coulson has been charged on one hacking conspiracy, and denies the charge. The trial at the Old Bailey continues.