Former News of the World Editor jailed 18 months in phone hacking case

British Prime Minister David Cameron's former media chief Andy Coulson was jailed for 18 months Friday for encouraging widespread phone-hacking by journalists to obtain scoops at the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid Coulson edited.

Coulson, editor of the now defunct News of the World from 2003 to 2007, was convicted last week of conspiracy to intercept voice mails on mobile phones following a high-profile eight-month trial at London's Old Bailey court.

"What this says is that it's right that justice should be done and that no one is above the law," said Cameron, who has apologized for having hired Coulson.

Opposition Labor leader Ed Miliband has criticized Cameron for bringing a "criminal into the heart of Downing Street.”

The maximum sentence the 46-year-old Coulson could have faced was two years, but the judge said he had taken into account signs of good character outside Coulson’s career.

Coulson showed no emotion as the sentence was read in a packed courtroom.

"Mr. Coulson ... has to take the major blame for the phone hacking at the News of the World," judge John Saunders said. "He knew about it and encouraged it when he should have stopped it."

The sentence was passed exactly three years to the day after The Guardian published revelations that staff on the paper had hacked into the voice mails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. That sparked widespread outrage across the country and prompted Murdoch to close the 168-year-old tabloid just days later. 

It became known that the newspaper had listened in to messages of thousands of targets — from film stars to crime victims to government ministers — to obtain information for scoops.

The judge said Coulson must have known about the paper’s failure to immediately tell police about Dowler's voice mails, an act he described as "unforgivable.”

Coulson, found guilty of conspiracy to illegally intercept voice mails on mobile phones, was the only one of seven defendants to be convicted following a long-running trial, one of the most expensive of its kind in British legal history.

Rebekah Brooks, his predecessor as News of the World editor who later ran News Corp.'s British newspaper arm, was among those found not guilty of phone hacking and other allegations. 

The two had been lovers for part of the time they worked together, according to testimony during the trial.

Three ex-senior journalists from the paper who pleaded guilty before the trial began were also sentenced on Friday.

Assistant Editor Greg Miskiw and Chief Reporter Neville Thurlbeck were given six months in jail, while one-time News Editor James Weatherup received a four-month suspended prison sentence.

Glenn Mulcaire, a former private investigator who had already gone to jail for earlier hacking offenses on behalf of the paper, was given a six-month suspended sentence after admitting further crimes including tapping Dowler's phone.

Mulcaire, the newspaper's chief phone hacker, received a suspended six-month sentence.

The judge said Mulcaire had carried out so much eavesdropping for the newspaper that he said he "couldn't cope with being given more phones to hack." But Mulcaire has already been sent to prison once for hacking, in 2007, and pleaded guilty this time.

The criminal action against Coulson is still not over. He faces a re-trial after the jury failed to reach a verdict over allegations that he authorized another editor to make illegal payments to police officers to obtain the telephone directories of Britain's royal family.

Prosecutors are also considering whether to instigate corporate charges against News Corp.'s British paper business. It has said it has changed the way it operates and has apologized to hacking victims.

Wire services