Former reporter for British tabloid News of the World and phone hacker Dan Evans said during the second day of hearings senior officials were aware of how he was obtaining front page stories like that of Daniel Craigs affair with Sienna Miller, Reuters reported.
Evans said Andy Coulson, then editor of the tabloid and former media chief to Prime Minister David Cameron, was fully aware he was hacking celebrity phones in order to acquire the front page material, according to Reuters.
In London's Old Bailey court, Evans was placed on the stand to explain his hacking methods after he admitted to intercepting voicemails, Reuters reported.
Coulson had been the editor of the tabloid until 2007 before serving as Cameron's head of communications until 2011, the same year the tabloid shut down, according to Reuters. He has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to intercept voicemails and authorising illegal payments to public officials.
Coulson denies any claim he was aware of how Evans obtained the intercepted voicemail on Bond actor Craig's phone, and Prime Minister Cameron has stated he would apologize for appointing Coulson if the claims about him turned out to be true, Reuters reported.
After being approached by another tabloid staffer in 2003, Evans joined the tabloid because of his phone hacking abilities. According to Evans, he played a hacked recording for Coulson and other senior officials in October 2005 which had been left by Miller who was dating Jude Law at the time, according to Reuters.
"Andy came over wanting to hear the tape. I played the tape a couple of times and they listened to it," Evans told the court, according to Reuters. "Andy became very animated. Brilliant."
"I heard a female voice saying 'Hi, it's me, I can't speak, I'm at the Groucho (club) with Jude. I love you'," Evans said speaking about the voicemail left by Miller, Reuters reported.
After telling the jury of his past problems with drugs and extensive history of phone hacking, he said Coulson then began to elaborate a plan to cover up the fact the voicemail was obtained through hacking, according to Reuters.
He told the jury Coulson planned for a copy of the tape to be dropped off at the building so it would have to be brought up by a security official, leaving no trace that the voicemail had been hacked by a staffer, Reuters reported.
Evans is the fourth person from News of the World to admit to phone hacking, but Coulson insists he was unaware of the hacking and argues it is impossible for him to be aware of every source a reporter uses, according to Reuters.
Evans also added the driving force behind using the hacked voicemails for cover stories was extreme pressure from superiors to get exclusives, Reuters reported.
"If you don't come up with a front page story you might as well jump off a cliff," Evans said one senior journalist wrote him in an email once, according to Reuters.
"I did everything I could to make sure I came back with a story. I hacked every phone I could possibly think of," Evans told the court, Reuters reported.
