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NoW’s former features editor faces jail after pleading guilty to phone hacking NoW’s former features editor faces jail after pleading guilty to phone hacking
(about 3 hours later)
The former features editor on the News of the World is facing a jail sentence after he admitted overseeing four years of phone hacking. The former features editor at the News of the World is facing a jail sentence after he admitted overseeing four years of phone hacking. Jules Stenson pleaded guilty to involvement in what the prosecution has called “industrial-scale hacking” operation at the News International newspaper under disgraced editor Andy Coulson between 2003 and 2007. The 48-year-old, from Wandsworth, south London, will be sentenced on a date to be fixed next year.
Jules Stenson, 48, pleaded guilty to involvement in an industrial-scale hacking operation at the News International newspaper under disgraced editor Andy Coulson. Stenson admitted conspiracy to hack phones between January 1, 2003 and January 26, 2007. The paper’s former deputy editor Neil Wallis, 63, pleaded not guilty to the same allegation at the Old Bailey on Friday and was given unconditional bail. He awaits a six-week trial on 3 June next year.
The paper’s former deputy editor Neil Wallis, 63, denied the same allegation The pair were the first to be charged under the Metropolitan police’s Operation Pinetree, a phone-hacking probe aimed at the features desk of the now-defunct Sunday tabloid, which followed the original Operation Weeting hacking investigation. The pair were the first to be charged under the Metropolitan police’s Operation Pinetree, an investigation into allegations of phone hacking at the features desk that stemmed from the Operation Weeting inquiry that led to the conviction of Coulson earlier this year. The Weeting conspiracy involved Coulson, news desk executives Greg Miskiw, James Weatherup, Neville Thurlbeck and Ian Edmondson, features reporter Dan Evans, and private detective Glenn Mulcaire, all of whom were either found guilty or pleaded guilty to being involved in hacking on the paper.
Coulson, who became David Cameron’s chief spin doctor after leaving journalism, was jailed for 18 months in June for phone hacking. He was convicted of leading the phone-hacking operation that intercepted thousands of messages between 2000 and 2006, fuelling a string of front page stories exposing the private lives of the rich and famous. Stenson was the boss of the former News of the World journalist Evans, who admitted to routine hacking, including eavesdropping on the messages of actor Daniel Craig, in the earlier trial.
The features editor was first arrested on suspicion of hacking in February last year, while Wallis was questioned by detectives last October. Stensonadmitted conspiracy to intercept communications in the course of their transmission without lawful authority. Wallis denies the same offence. Stenson will be sentenced at the conclusion of Wallis’ trial, which is fixed for June 3 2015. Both men were freed on unconditional bail. In a separate trial at Kingston crown court, a judge ruled that Chris Pharo, the Sun’s head of news, will no longer face trial for paying a prison official at Swaleside prison for stories about security breaches in 2007 and 2009.
Judge Richard Marks told jurors: “For reasons I need not go into at the present time, my intention is having considered the matter with counsel to discharge you from giving a verdict on that count.”
Pharo still faces three other charges, all of which he denies.