British reporter admits hacking

British reporter Dan Evans admitted illegally accessing celebrities’ voicemail messages while working at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid and its rival, the Sunday Mirror. Evans is the fourth News of the World journalist to plead guilty to phone hacking, but the first reporter to admit he also used the illegal practice at the Sunday Mirror. During Britain’s phone-hacking trial Monday, Evans said he was recruited by News of the World in 2005 partly because of his phone-hacking skills. He claimed meeting former editor Andy Coulson for a job interview, in which Evans boasted he could provide “big exclusive stories cheaply” by listening to celebrities’ voicemails to work out who they were dating. Coulson and other news executives are accused of hacking the phones of hundreds of celebrities and public figures. Media tycoon Murdoch shut down the News of the World in July 2011 following the controversy. British actor Jude Law, testifying at the trial told the jury the media seemed to have an “unhealthy amount of information” about his private life.

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