The New York Times has published a long investigative piece into the News of the World and Andy Coulson’s phone-hacking scandal.

The scandal was first unearthed by the Guardian earlier this year.

Today the NYT has published an extensive 7 page story into the ‘Tabloid Hack Attack‘.

It mentions early on the reluctance of the police to take any action:

“There was simply no enthusiasm among Scotland Yard to go beyond the cases involving Mulcaire and Goodman,” said John Whittingdale, the chairman of a parliamentary committee that has twice investigated the phone hacking. “To start exposing widespread tawdry practices in that newsroom was a heavy stone that they didn’t want to try to lift.”

Several investigators said in interviews that Scotland Yard was reluctant to conduct a wider inquiry in part because of its close relationship with News of the World.

Then on page 3 of the report it states:

Sean Hoare, a former reporter and onetime close friend of Coulson’s, also recalled discussing hacking. The two men first worked together at The Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his pursuits. Coulson “actively encouraged me to do it,” Hoare said.

Hoare said he was fired during a period when he was struggling with drugs and alcohol. He said he was now revealing his own use of the dark arts — which included breaking into the messages of celebrities like David and Victoria Beckham — because it was unfair for the paper to pin the blame solely on Goodman. Coulson declined to comment for this article but has maintained that he was unaware of the hacking.

The Guardian has already leapt on the story tonight as evidence that its original investigation was justified and needed to go further.

Update: Tom Watson MP says he will raise it in Parliament next week.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

2. Graeme Stirling

   RT @libcon: NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

3. David O'Keefe

   RT @libcon: NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

4. Jo Celia Simmonds

   RT @libcon NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

5. Cornelius Griffiths

   RT @libcon: NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

6. Myles Winstone

   RT @libcon: NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

7. Jose Aguiar

   While we are very concerned with Hague and Blair.RT @libcon:NY Times reports Coulson as having"encouraged"phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

8. winston k moss

   RT @libcon: NY Times reports Coulson as having "encouraged" phone hacking http://bit.ly/9l5aQ4

9. David Butler

   more imp than blair and hague; http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/09/01/ny-times-reports-coulson-as-having-encouraged-phone-hacking/

10. andrew

    NYT: Andy Coulson “encouraged” hacking | Liberal Conspiracy: Liberal Conspiracy. NY Times reports Coulson as havin… http://bit.ly/c8PtvJ

11. Phone hacking. Where are the other papers? « The BigotBasher

    [...] Liberal Conspiracy blogger, Sunny Hundal accuses Paul Staines (aka Guido Fawkes) of running a bait and switch article. Reporters went after Hague for the supposed non story about his sexuality, (which was actually more to do with his hiring of a poorly qualified Special Advisor then his sexuality), rather than going after the “real story” of Coulson. [...]