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'Hand Gesture' Signified NOTW Phone Hacking

'Hand Gesture' Signified NOTW Phone Hacking

The Scottish perjury trial of Andy Coulson has heard of a hand gesture used in News Of The World (NOTW) editorial conferences to signify phone hacking.

The former director of communications at Downing Street is accused of lying under oath when he said he didn't know about hacking when he was editor of the paper.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, former news editor James Weatherup gave evidence that phone hacking was systematic at the newspaper.

He said that Coulson would have known that private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was hacking phones.

Mr Weatherup told the court that during editorial conferences he would have used a signal at least two or three times when Coulson asked him where a story came from.

In the witness box, Mr Weatherup demonstrated the gesture by raising his left arm and stuck out his thumb, forefinger and pinkie.

This, he said, indicated that information had come from phone-hacking activities.

He was asked if anything was ever said explicitly in conference in relation to hacking when Coulson was there.

He replied that there was one time when Coulson asked about the provenance of a story and an executive replied: "It's the dark arts, boss."

He said that Coulson responded by saying not to use that language anymore.

Mr Weatherup was asked if he had used the services of Mr Mulcaire as a phone-hacker.

He replied that he had used his services 137 times, not all for phone hacking.

The court heard that Mr Weatherup, 59, had been convicted of phone-hacking at the Old Bailey in July 2013 and was given a suspended sentence of four months and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Coulson, 47, denies charges that he lied when he gave evidence to the 2010 perjury trial of Tommy Sheridan, a former MSP.

He denies knowing Mr Mulcaire and that one of his reporters hacked phones.

He also denies knowing about newspaper payments to corrupt police officers.

The trial continues.