News of the World phone hacking whistleblower found dead
Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson
knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious
• Amelia Hill, James Robinson, Caroline Davies
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 July 2011 18.04 BST
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first
named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his
staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before
being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead
at his Watford home.
Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a
statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley
Road, Watford, following the concerns for welfare of a man who lives at an
address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the
body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly
after.
"The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be
suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the
phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World.
He told that newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the phone-hacking, but
that he actively encouraged his staff to intercept the phone calls of
celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.
In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged that he was personally asked
by his then-editor, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM
programme he said Coulson's insistence that he didn't know about the practice
was "a lie, it is simply a lie".
At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly
denied the allegations and said he had "never condoned the use of phone-hacking
and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone-hacking took
place".
Sean Hoare, a one-time close friend of Coulson's, told the New York Times the
two men first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape
recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said
he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. Coulson "actively encouraged
me to do it," Hoare said.
In September last year he was interviewed under caution by police over his
claims that the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones
when he was editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment.
Hoare emerged back into the spotlight last week, after he told the New York
Times that reporters at the News of the World were able to use police
technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals in exchange for
payments to police officers.
He said journalists were able to use a technique called 'pinging' which
measured the distance between mobile handsets and a number of phone masts to
pinpoint its location.
Hoare gave further details about the use of 'pinging' to the Guardian last
week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the
location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would
come back and say 'right that's where they are.'"
He said: "You'd just go to the news desk and they'd just come back to you. You
don't ask any questions. You'd consider it a job done. The chain of command is
one of absolute discipline and what's why I never bought into, like with Andy
saying he wasn't aware of it and all that. That's bollocks."
He said he would stand by everything he had told the New York Times about
'pinging'. "I don't know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But
if I had access as a humble reporter … ."
He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs and had been in rehab.
"But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to
go away."
Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the
World, adding: "He may want to talk now because I think what you'll find now is
a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse."
Speaking to another Guardian journalist st last week, Hoare repeatedly
expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general
being cleaned up and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities
of some of his former News of the World colleagues with that aim in mind.
He also said he has been injured at a party the previous weekend while taking
down a marquee erected for a children's party. He said he had broken his nose
and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a heavy
pole from the marquee.
Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story.
Hoare, who has been treated for drug and alcohol problems, reminisced about
partying with former pop stars and said he missed the days when he was able to
go out on the town.
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