A journalist who claimed that the former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis congratulated him on phone hacking has denied suggestions that he made up evidence and added gloss to his account.
Dan Evans, 39, told the Old Bailey in London he stood by his evidence that Wallis had told him: “You’re a company man now, Dan”, after Evans played Wallis a hacked voicemail left for Daniel Craig by fellow actor Sienna Miller.
Wallis, 64, from Chiswick, west London, denies one charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemail communications.
Under cross-examination Evans, who joined the tabloid from the rival Sunday Mirror, was accused of “transplanting” words he had attributed to Wallis while in the witness box, and adding embellishment.
Notes from a meeting between Evans and his lawyers attributed the phrase “You’re a company man now, Dan” to the then News of the World features editor Jules Stenson said Neil Saunders, counsel for Wallis.
The same notes also made no mention of Wallis being present when Evans played a tape recording of the hacked Miller voicemail to staff in the Sunday paper’s office.
“Why is there no mention here of Neil Wallis?” asked Saunders.
Evans blamed the error on the note taker at the meeting. He added: “The tape was played on a number of occasions throughout the day. To the best of my recollection, Mr Wallis did listen to that tape, he did take me by the elbow and he did say: ‘You’re a company man now, Dan.’ Those were his words.”
The jury has heard Evans agreed to help the police investigation into phone hacking, and a statement running to 80,000 words was taken from him over six weeks and drafted by officers following scoping interviews.
He told the jury: “I am not here to lie. Why would I come here and perjure myself?”
He said he had hacked Craig’s phone after fearing for his job. Stenson had bullied him, warning him that if he did not get a front page he might as well “jump off a cliff or bridge”. In a verbal mauling Stenson had also told him: “Your USP is the phones.”
He described the weekly features conference as “a rotating platter of hate” with somebody always “getting it in the neck”.
Evans said originally he had denied phone hacking, but then changed his mind. “It was a matter for me and my conscience whether I wanted to stop peddling the News International line which was completely bogus, or basically man up and take responsibility, which is what I wanted to do,” he said.
The trial continues.
