Clive Goodman Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images
The row over who took the decision to censor a key letter in the phone-hacking affair has taken a fresh twist, with a leading law firm denyingNews International had ordered redactions in an attempt to "cover up" the extent of the practice at the News of the World.
Linklaters has written to John Whittingdale, the chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, to tell him that following guidance from the Metropolitan police it had blacked out key sentences in a letter sent by Clive Goodman to News International in February 2007, in which Goodman claimed hacking was discussed openly in editorial conferences.
The Goodman letter emerged on Tuesday when the culture committee published a raft of correspondence as part of its long-running investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.
"No News International or News Corporation officer or employee took any part in deciding what to redact," Linklaters said in its letter to Whittingdale. "Those redactions were made by a partner from this firm … [and] were made following guidance from the Metropolitan police."
Earlier on Thursday the Daily Telegraph reported that Scotland Yard made it clear it had asked for names to be redacted, but had not cut whole sections, which also hid a claim by Goodman that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson had promised to keep a job at the paper open for him if he did not implicate other staff. Goodman was sentenced for hacking into mobile phones in January 2007.
A copy of the same 2007 letter from Goodman to News International was also sent by Harbottle & Lewis to the committee on Wednesday, but with the relevant passages still legible.
That prompted claims News International was deliberately seeking to hide the true extent of phone hacking at the paper and disguise the role that former senior executives played in it, a claim that Linklaters denied in its letter.
"There has been some media comment over the last two days suggesting that News International made these redactions in order to 'cover up' the truth," the law firm said. "That is not correct."
Linklaters added that it had made the redactions so as not to jeopardise Operation Weeting, the ongoing police investigation into phone hacking.
"The redactions were made in order to remove any content which might identify any individual or group and to avoid any prejudice to any new line of inquiry," it said.
The firm added it had done so because it shared the Met's desire not to undermine the investigation.
It pointed out that News International had handed the letter to Scotland Yard in the first place. "News International voluntarily submitted this letter in unredacted form to the Metropolitan police in June of this year," it said.
If the claims Goodman made in his letter are proved, they provide the most compelling evidence yet that senior executives at the paper knew about and condoned phone hacking.
It was sent in 2007 after Goodman was told by News International that he had been sacked following his imprisonment. He appealed against his dismissal and subsequently received a £243,000 payoff.
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