Queen's Lawyer Quizzed About Phone Hacking - Sky News

6:44pm UK, Wednesday October 19, 2011

David Bowden, senior news correspondent

A top lawyer at the legal firm that represents the Queen has told MPs he was under no obligation to report suspected criminal activity to the police.

Mr Pike said it was not part of his job to inform police of possible wrongdoings

Julian Pike, who works for Farrer & Co, was giving evidence to the media select committee about phone hacking at the News of the World, another of his firm's former clients.

Mr Pike negotiated the ?425,000 settlement with the footballers' union chief Gordon Taylor after the now defunct tabloid hacked his phone.

Mr Pike told the committee that legal advice given to News Group at the time - The News of the World's parent company - showed that in addition to royal editor Clive Goodman, three other journalists had been involved in phone hacking.

The News of the World has been shut down following the phone hacking revelations

He denied telling Mark Lewis, Mr Taylor's lawyer, that "he was dealing with Murdoch" during settlement negotiations.

However, Mr Pike did admit that the payout to Mr Taylor was more than ten times bigger than any other he had been party to in many years working for News International.

He said that part of the size of the payout was determined because of his client's need for a confidentiality clause.

Mr Taylor received a huge payment after taking legal action

Mr Pike said he had been authorised to pay up to half a million pounds, and that authorisation came from a company director, probably James Murdoch.

Prior to his meeting with Mr Murdoch, Mr Pike said he had been copied in on a briefing note composed by the in-house News of the World lawyer, Tom Crone, for the paper's last editor Colin Myler.

Mr Myler and Mr Crone have already given evidence to the select committee that James Murdoch was told phone hacking at the News of the World went beyond just "one rogue reporter."

This had been the company's stance at the beginning of the phone hacking scandal.

Giving evidence to the committee, Mr Lewis said he thought Mr Murdoch was trying to persuade them that he was incompetent and not dishonest.

James Murdoch giving evidence to the committee in July

Mr Lewis also told MPs he had been given a CD by police seized from the convicted phone hacker Glen Mulcaire on which he explains to a reporter, who worked for the Evening Standard at the time, how to hack phones.

Lewis also claimed his phone had been hacked and that he had been followed, which he had reported to police.

The former executive chairman of News International, Les Hinton, who now lives in the US, will give evidence to the committee via videolink next week.

James Murdoch is expected to re-appear before the committee the week after.