Hacking Kate Middleton, Prince William & Harry's Phones Now "Feels Very Wrong," Ex-Newspaper Editor Says

The 57-year-old made his comments on Friday at a high court in Edinburgh, Scotland while testifying in an unrelated perjury trial of Andy Coulson, 47, the newspaper's former top editor

By Corinne Heller May 22, 2015 10:05 PMTags
Kate Middleton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Royal Baby, Prince WilliamAP Photo/Alastair Grant

Clive Goodman, a former royal editor of Rupert Murdoch's defunct News of the World tabloid, told a London court that he regrets hacking into the phones of Prince William, wife Kate Middleton and brother Prince Harry about a decade ago.

He made his comments on Friday at a high court in Edinburgh, Scotland while testifying in an unrelated perjury trial of Andy Coulson, the newspaper's former top editor and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron's former director of communications.

"Now, it feels very wrong," The Guardian quoted Goodman as saying about his hacking of the three royals. "I've had plenty of time to reflect on this, it's not something I'm proud of, not the greatest move of my career. I'd dearly love to be able to move on but nobody seems to let me move on. We still seem to be discussing it nine years on."

"I don't deny any of this; it's there, I did it," he added. "I wish I hadn't but I can't take it back."

 Both Goodman and Coulson served several months in jail over their involvement in News of the World's phone hacking, which was revealed to be more widespread, targeting several celebrities, politicians and even a 13-year-old female murder victim. The scandal spurred the shutdown of the tabloid.

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In 2007, Goodman was sentenced to four months behind bars after pleading guilty to intercepting the cell phone messages of three members of the royal household, who were not named. Goodman told a London court in May 2014 that he had repeatedly hacked the voicemails of William, Kate and Harry, from late 2005 until his arrest in 2006. Kate's phone was hacked 155 times, including during the Christmas holiday and most recently the day before Goodman was detained.

He had made his comments while on trial for another case, for allegedly authorizing illegal payments to police officers to obtain royal phone directories. Coulson faced the same accusations. Both denied the charges. During the trial, it was revealed that in one phone message, William called Kate "Babykins", Reuters reported. No verdicts were reached. In April, prosecutors dropped both cases.

William, who married Kate in 2011 and shares with her son Prince George, who is almost 2, and baby daughter Princess Charlotte, who is almost three weeks old, had his phone was hacked 35 times. Harry's messages were accessed illegally nine times.

"I hacked Kate Middleton's phone just to see if there was a message from Prince William," The Guardian quoted Goodman as telling the court on Friday, when asked what he was doing on Christmas Day by Coulson's lawyer.

Coulson quit News of the World after Goodman's 2007 sentencing and denied he knew about the illegal phone activity, Reuters reported. During the 2014 trial, he was found guilty of conspiring to hack phones and sentenced to 18 months in jail. He served less than five.

He has pleaded not guilty in his latest perjury trial after being accused of lying about his knowledge of hacking in another perjury trial, a 2010 cast against Scottish former politician Tommy Sheridan.

News of the World, once the U.K.'s best-selling tabloid, shut down in July 2011 after 168 years amid the phone hacking scandal. Murdoch himself had said the allegations were "deplorable and unacceptable" and his son, deputy CEO of his company News Corp., announced before the newspaper's shutdown that its final week of profits would "go to good causes."