Former News of the World legal chief Tom Crone has been cleared over charges he ordered the surveillance of two solicitors who were suing the paper over phone hacking.
A Bar Standards Board (BSB) disciplinary tribunal unanimously rejected all charges against Crone and cleared him of professional misconduct on Monday (15 August).
Crone was hit with six charges of attempting to uncover an alleged affair between solicitors Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris, then at Manchester firm George Davies (now part of Mills & Reeve). The surveillance was allegedly ordered to provide the paper with “good leverage” during the litigation case.
A BSB spokesperson said: “We note the tribunal’s decision that it did not find the charges against Mr Crone proved as it could not be sure that the behaviour with which he was charged amounted to professional misconduct. However, we consider it was in the public interest that the matters be decided by an independent tribunal.”
Crone was in charge of the News of the World’s legal team during the period when the newspaper had engaged in phone hacking. He quit the newspaper in July 2011 after 26 years.
He appeared in front of a Parliamentary committee in 2011 and told MPs that he was “certain” that News International’s James Murdoch was aware that the phone hacking scandal went beyond one rogue reporter.
In 2012 Crone was accused by Rupert Murdoch of being complicit in the cover up of the phone hacking scandal that plagued the News International owned paper.
At the time Crone responded to the allegations by calling them a “shameful lie”.
Later that year Crone was arrested by the Metropolitan police on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications contrary to Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977. He was later cleared of all charges.
