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Former editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson has formally been charged with three counts of perjury at a hearing in the High Court in Glasgow.
The indictment accused Coulson of lying about his knowledge of phone hacking, lying about his knowledge of the hacking “culture” at the newspaper, and lying about his knowledge of payments made to police officers while he was editor of the paper. Cousin did not enter a plea, nor did he attend the preliminary hearing.
The crown claims that he had made false statements as a witness in trial of former Scottish Socialist MSP Tommy Sheridan December 2010.
The first count of perjury is in relation to to the period before arrest of Glenn Mulcaire in 2006. Mr Mulcaire was the private investigator found guilty of a phone-hacking conspiracy whilst under a contract with News of the World.
The crown claim that Coulson falsely stated that he was unaware his royal editor Clive Goodman was involved in hacking, that was unaware of any payments made to Mulcaire for hacking and that he had not even heard of Mulcaire before his arrest in 2006.
Coulson is accused of falsely claiming there “was not a culture of making use of unlawful interception of communications in the course of their transmissions by a public telecommunications system” in his second count of perjury.
Goodman and Mulcaire were sentenced to prison in 2007 for phone hacking charges which took place when Coulson was editor of News of the World.
The indictment states that between 10 October 2005 and 8 Augst 2006 when Goodman and Mulcaire were arrested, Cousin was aware of payment of £500 a week being made to the private investigator, and that Cousin knew of his illegal activities.
The third count relates to the fact that Cousin lied about being aware of payments being made to corrupt police officers by staff at News of the World.
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