Coulson 'far from perfect but that does not make him guilty of phone-hacking'

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/29/coulson-far-from-perfect-guilty-phone-hacking

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Andy Coulson was "far from perfect" either professionally or personally but this does not make him guilty of charges in the phone-hacking trial, the jury has been told.

The former News of the World editor had already admitted that he would not have got the job as the Conservative Party spin doctor in 2007 had David Cameron known he knew about the hacking of David Blunkett's phone, his defence counsel said.

In his final remarks in his two-day closing speech, Timothy Langdale QC told jurors that Coulson had told them freely that "he made mistakes and errors of judgment" and that he was "somebody who was not flashy" and while he had "done some important and high profile jobs" he was "hardly the big 'I am'."

"You may have found him to be a modest and careful witness. He took responsibility on his own shoulders he wasn't someone trying to shift blame or the consequences on to others.

"He didn't attempt to blame other anytime in his evidence," said Langdale.

He told jurors that he had been "frank" about his clandestine relationship with Rebekah Brooks and the irony that he was conducting an extra-marital affair while his paper was publishing similar stories "is not lost on him".

He said he had told his story without "shilly shallying, without obfuscation" and admitted freely to having known about the hacking of Blunkett's voicemails to a married Kimberly Quinn, despite the lack of any forensic evidence or emails linking him to the illegal eavesdropping.

Langdale reminded jurors that Coulson had told them that "the media temperature around these issues is considerably higher than it was then" and that he had said "you may be right that if I had explained what I have explained to the jury now, that that job [in the Tory party] wouldn't have been offered to me".

He urged jurors to "attend to the detail" in the case against Coulson because it would be the "antidote to any undue broadbrush approach" and an antidote to a "closed mind".

He said the prosecution's case against Coulson had "fallen short" of proving guilt overall and said that if after consideration that was the jurors' view "the proper verdict" is "not guilty".

Coulson has denied three charges including a conspiracy to hack phones.

The trial continues.