Epress.am News from Armenia
Former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare, the first journalist to publicly allege that former editor at the paper Andy Coulson encouraged his staff to hack voicemails, was found dead at his home yesterday, reports the Irish Times.
The discovery of Hoare’s body was made by police Monday morning at his Watford home after concerns were raised about his whereabouts. His death is described as “unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious.”
Last year, Hoare told The New York Times Coulson was completely aware phone-hacking was routinely used in the News of the World, insisting he urged reporters to use it to win exclusives.
Speaking to the Guardian’ s Nick Davies, Hoare explained his decision to speak out against the tabloid, saying reporters working for the newspaper were often as much victims as the people they hacked.
“I want to right a wrong, lift the lid on it, the whole culture. I know, we all know, that the hacking and other stuff is endemic. Because there is so much intimidation. In the newsroom, you have people being fired, breaking down in tears, hitting the bottle,” he said.
His life as a showbusiness reporter left Hoare, described last night as “a lovely man” by one former colleague, with a drink and drugs problem. This is believed to have played a role in his death.
“I was paid to go out and take drugs with rock stars – get drunk with them, take pills with them, take cocaine with them. It was so competitive. You are going to go beyond the call of duty. You are going to do things that no sane man would do. You’re in a machine,” Hoare told Davies.
In his interview with the New York Times, Hoare said he had played recordings of voicemails for Coulson but he then refused to be interviewed by police.
Last week, he was again quoted by the New York Times , on an even more serious allegation: that News of the World journalists had bribed police officers to trace celebrities by tracking their mobile telephones to the nearest mobile mast they had last used.