James Murdoch To Give Hacking Evidence Again

James Murdoch will re-appear before the select committee investigating phone-hacking on November 10, but members have been told by News International's former executive chairman there is "no reason" for Mr Murdoch to resign over the scandal.

Looming over the committee in Westminster on a videolink from New York, Les Hinton repeated he had no idea at the time he was in charge, from 1995 to 2007, that phone hacking went beyond one "rogue reporter" - the News of the Worlds former Royal Editor, Clive Goodman.

He said he believed there had been a thorough investigation within the company at the time.

Mr Hinton, who sounded hoarse and quiet on the video-link, did admit he personally sanctioned almost a quarter of a million pound pay off for Goodman after he sacked him for "gross misconduct" following Goodman's conviction for phone-hacking.

The former executive denied there was any evidence phone hacking went beyond Goodman and Glen Mulcaire, the private investigator he worked with, even though Mr Hinton had been copied in on a letter sent by Goodman alleging that phone-hacking was openly discussed at editorial meetings at the Sunday paper.

Mr Hinton resigned from News International's parent company News Corporation in July this year, bringing to an end more than half a century of service to Rupert Murdoch, who runs the company.

But when quizzed about his current contact with the organisation Mr Hinton said he no longer had his company car or office space and had not taken advice from his former employers about giving evidence to the select committee.

However he did acknowledge he had been given a severance package by News Corp, though quickly added that the details of it were confidential.

It is likely to be substantial - Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World, who resigned from her senior position at News International on the same day as Les Hinton reportedlyy recieved a pay off totally several million pounds.

Throughout his evidence Mr Hinton consistently said he could not remember the detail of what happened before he left NI in 2007.

Tom Watson MP sarcastically congratulated him that he had only said he could not remember seven times, compared to a previous occasion before the committee where Mr Watson said Mr Hinton used the phrase 32 times.

In the end, amnesia, a dodgy transatlantic link and no smoking gun meant the committee, despite its best efforts, never laid a glove on Mr Hinton, who's credentials as a loyal Murdoch apparatchik are unblemished.

Paul Farrelly MP likened Mr Hinton to a mushroom "kept in the dark" about what was really going on at the News of the World.

The committee was so underwhelmed that members were heard off microphone at the end saying the evidence was "interesting" but "not useful" and admitting Mr Hinton came across as "quite credible".

They now have a couple of weeks to sharpen their pencils and inquisatorial skills for James Murdoch who will doubtless be asked to counter lawyer Mark Lewis' assertion to the committee last week that Mr Murdoch wanted the members to think him 'incompetent" rather than "dishonest".