The News of the World story revealing Sir Paul McCartney had thrown Heather Mills's engagement ring out the window of a hotel in the US came from a tipoff, the Old Bailey has heard.
Counsel for the former editor of the newspaper, Rebekah Brooks, produced surprise evidence to the phone-hacking trial on Tuesday afternoon to challenge the prosecution's inclusion of the article in a timeline related to hacking.
They said the co-author of the article, Annette Witheridge, had sent an email to police investigating a possible link between the article and hacking to tell them the story had come from a tipoff in the US, where the former Beatles star had been staying with his then fiancee.
Witheridge said in her email the tip had "come from a man whose wife worked in a beauty salon" in Florida, and that she had been asked to speak to him by her news desk.
"I believe he had called several UK newspapers asking for money for the tip," Witheridge told the Metropolitan police.
Jonathan Laidlaw, QC for Brooks, asked DC Andrea Fletcher why the police had not sought a witness statement from Witheridge and why the email had not been entered as evidence in the case.
Fletcher said the police felt her email provided sufficient detail for their investigation, which found no link between the article and phone hacking. They had introduced it to the timeline to corroborate some of the testimony of Eimear Cook, the former wife of the golfer Colin Montgomery.
Witheridge told Scotland Yard's Operating Weeting team she had spoken to the manager of the hotel where McCartney was staying, to a security guard and to the public relations officer for the hotel.
She had also chatted to a security guard outside the hotel and to people in the beauty parlor although these quotes did not make it into the story, she said.
The jury was shown the News of the World story headlined "Macca throws Heather's ring out of hotel window, Exclusive". It stated that McCartney had thrown a £15,000 engagement ring out of a window and then asked security staff to search for it.
The trial continues.
.jpg?w=600)
