Phone-hacking trial: Editor 'was warned he could face charges over payments to police'

Clive Goodman, the former royal correspondent, warned Coulson about the payments (Getty Images)

Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, was given a clear warning by his royal specialist that he could face criminal charges for paying police to steal a copy of a phone directory containing private numbers of the Royal Family, the trial heard.

Mr Coulson authorised cash payments of £1,750 for two palace directories to protect the identities of the royal protection officers listed in News International payment records under false names, the court was told. They have not been identified to the jury.

In a series of emails shown in court, the newspaper's royal editor, Clive Goodman, insisted on protecting the identities of the officers because if they were found to be "selling stuff to us, they [sic] end up on criminal charges, as could we".

In an email dated May 2005, Goodman was said to have told Mr Coulson: "Andy – know your [sic] busy but… one of our palace cops has got hold of a rare and just printed Palace staff phone book. Every job, every name, every number. We usually pay £1,000 a go for these. It's a very risky document for him to nick. OK to put the credit through? It's one of our normal cash contributions only players."

When he received no reply, Goodman is said to have followed up with another request to which Mr Coulson replied: "Fine." Goodman was said by the prosecution to have warned a senior executive that a "paper trail" of payments made to police officers could "put them, me, you, and the editor [Andy Coulson] in jail". A total of 15 copies of the directory were found in Goodman's home when it was searched in 2006 and he was subsequently charged with phone hacking. The court heard that Goodman had kept a file of evidence showing that what he had done was sanctioned at a high level at the NOTW.

"Mr Coulson and no doubt others at News International were extremely worried about what Mr Goodman would do and say in the course of defending himself," said Andrew Edis, QC, counsel for the prosecution.

"They had every reason to be worried, because, whether they knew it or not, Mr Goodman had kept a little file of emails which showed, we suggest, that what he was doing was officially sanctioned [by] people senior to him."

Goodman was convicted along with the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in 2007 and subsequently dismissed from the newspaper.

Despite an official statement condemning wrongdoing after hacking revelations came to light, Rebekah Brooks, then editor of The Sun, took Goodman to lunch at the RAC Club in Pall Mall after his dismissal and offered him a job, the court was told.

The court heard of a list of stories that featured in the newspaper that allegedly involved payments to public officials. Between 2004 and last year, Ms Brooks – latterly the chief executive of News International – authorised payments of more than £40,000 to a Ministry of Defence press officer described in emails as a reporter's "No 1 military contact", Mr Edis said.