It looks like the career of James Murdoch is well and truly finished.
He will have to have to front the UK inquiry into phone hacking, after former News of the World executives disputed his previous parliamentary evidence, basically suggesting he was lying. As reported here, Tom Crone, who left as News Group Newspapers' legal manager in August, says he is absolutely sure Murdoch was told of an explosive email that indicated phone hacking at the paper went beyond one rogue reporter. That contradicts Murdoch's version of events.
Crone and Colin Myler, the then News of the World editor, went together to see James in 2008 after a legal case the paper was fighting went badly wrong. Gordon Taylor, the head of the English soccer players' union, was suing the paper for breaching his privacy by illegally hacking his voicemails, and his lawyers had unearthed a smoking-gun document. This was an email containing transcripts of 35 voicemail messages meant for or left by Taylor, which was sent by a junior staff reporter of the News of the World to private investigator and hacker-in-chief Glenn Mulcaire, and opened with the words: "Here is the transcript for Neville." The chief reporter of the News of the World was named Neville Thurlbeck. Crone had spoken to lawyers who said that in the light of this document the legal case could no longer be defended, and he reported this to Myler. So they went in asked for a meeting with the new boss, James Murdoch. At the time, the company position was that only one rogue employee, Clive Goodman, had been involved. He was working with Mulcaire, and he had gone to jail.
Crone and Myler say they had briefed Murdoch. In his testimony, Crone said: "It was clear evidence that phone hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman. It was the reason we had to settle the case and in order to settle the case, we had to explain the case to Mr Murdoch and get his authority to settle, so clearly it was discussed." James has a different story. He and his father Rupert have testified in previous hearings that they had not been told of the "for Neville" e-mail. He still stands by his testimony. But there's a problem. There were three of them in the room, and two of them have one version. Someone's lying.
The other issue is that James is still chairman of BSkyB. He could lose that post if he's found guilty of perjury or worse.
News Corporation is not like any other business, it has a cult like status and people invest in it because they think the old man can see around corners. But clearly his son is made of different stuff. Mark Lewis, the lawyer representing phone hacking victims has told Bloomberg that James Murdoch's career is finished if it's shown that he was lying. If James Murdoch worked for any other company, he would be out on his ear. But it looks like he's running out of time. He's toast.
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