EX-NEWS INTERNATIONAL REPORTER SAYS EDITOR TRIED TO BUY HIS SILENCE

Clive Goodman, the former royal editor of the now-defunct News of the World and the only reporter to be convicted and imprisoned for telephone hacking while working for the Sunday tabloid, testified today (Thursday) that he came under intense pressure to keep quiet about colleagues who were also eavesdropping on the voicemails of celebrities and public officials. Goodman told a jury in London that editor Andy Coulson had told him that he would be able to keep his job and that his legal fees would be paid if he agreed to admit that he was a “lone wolf.” He said that the lawyer that had been assigned to defend him also recommended that he take that tack. “I knew he was there to represent me, but he was being paid by News International and I had a pretty strong feeling that everything I said would probably go straight back to them,” Goodman testified.