Last updated at 1:31 PM on 6th August 2011
Voyeur: Guardian journalist David Leigh has admitted phone hacking after his newspaper exposed the News of the World scandal
A senior Guardian journalist is set to be questioned by police after admitting phone hacking.
David Leigh, assistant editor at The Guardian, which exposed the News of the World hacking scandal said he tapped into the voicemail messages of an arms company executive.
The Guardian said that Mr Leigh would be 'only too happy' to explain his actions to Lord Justice Leveson's public inquiry into media ethics, which starts next month, according to The Times.
Now an executive editor at the newspaper, Mr Leigh described feeling a 'voyeuristic thrill' in hearing another person's private messages' when he hacked into the voicemail of an arms company executive during an investigation into corruption allegations.
The professor of Reporting at City University in London admitted hacking a phone in an article published in December 2006 after the News of the World's former royal editor, Clive Goodman and private detective Glen Mulcaire were convicted and later jailed in January 2007 after admitting to hacking into the mobile phone messages of three aides to the Royal Family.
In his article for The Guardian's media section he defended his actions by writing: 'There is not a newspaper or TV channel in the country that has not on occasion got down in the gutter and used questionable methods.
Rupert Murdoch, left, and Rebekah Brooks give evidence to the Department of Culture Media and Sport committee last month
'I too once listened to the mobile phone messages of a corrupt arms company executive - the crime similar to that for which Goodman now faces the prospect of jail.
'The trick was a simple one: the businessman in question had inadvertently left his pin code on a print-out and all that was needed was to dial straight into his voicemail.
'There is certainly a voyeuristic thrill in hearing another person's private messages.
'But unlike Goodman, I was not interested in witless tittle-tattle about the royal family. I was looking for evidence of bribery and corruption.
'That is my defence, when I try to explain newspaper methods to my current university journalism students, and some of whom are rather shocked.
Clive Goodman, former News of the World editor, left and private detective, Glen Mulcaire, right were jailed in 2007 for phone hacking
'And unlike the News of the World, I was not paying a private detective to routinely help me with circulation-boosting snippets.
'I think the rule should be that deceptions, lies and stings should only be used as a last resort, and only when it is clearly in the public interest.'
A Guardian spokesman said Mr Leigh had been open and transparent in writing about his use of phone hacking and 'has never attempted to conceal it or cover it up.'
Scotland Yard said it's Operation Weeting team, which is investigating hacking is aware of Mr Leigh's admission but refused to comment.
Tom Watson, the Labour MP who has campaigned for a full disclosure of what News International executives knew about hacking said there was a need for 'clarity' on when journalists were working in the public interest, according to The Times.
The BEEB threw Murdoch in our faces when the Left were on their witch hunt, and the Guardian must have published 5 hacking stories a day (strangely with the comments switched-off). I don't see much from the BEEB now, or the Left wing press now that the Mirror and the Guardian are allegedly involved in hacking as well. Typical Labour, they never think things through. It was obvious that radio phones are so easy to hack, everyone would have been at it.
- Nick, sumware, 06/8/2011 16:45
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