The picture editor of the Sun newspapers has said he made “hardly any” checks on the veracity of cash requests from a senior reporter on the paper because he implicitly trusted hum.
John Edwards was grilled extensively on payments made by the picture desk for photos used to accompany stories written by reporter Jamie Pyatt, who is also on trial for conspiracy to cause misconduct in public office.
Prosecutor Oliver Glasgow told the trial jury on Monday that there was no email link between the photos and Edwards, but he pressed him on whether a payment was always to the photographer or whether it was for a source who gave them the “opportunity to take the photo”.
One such picture was of Rachel Nickell killer Robert Napper feeding chickens in Broadmoor hospital, while another was of couple who had been caught having sex at Windsor Castle.
Asked by Glasgow what checks he made on the credibility of Pyatt’s requests, Edwards told the court: “Hardly any, I mean there’s complete trust there.
“When I was growing up on the Sun, Jamie Pyatt was news editor for two years. Anything Jamie is doing does not need policing by me.
“This was not a regular occurance. This was very, very rare. Reporters weren’t in the habit of operating like this. James was a news editor he knew how the system worked. He was asking for help.“
Edwards was pressed on a payment request to a soldier “to keep them on side” in 2006.
He said he had no recollection of the story or the payment. Asked how would he have felt if he had recalled the email, Edwards said he had explained on Friday that he would have disagreed with paying a police officer. “I’m not 100% sure how I would have felt,” he said. “There was no check-list in the office. We did not have a list of people we could or we couldn’t [pay].”
Asked if he, as picture editor, would have approved that £250 payment to the soldier, he said he had no recollection of it and it could hypothetically have been him or any one else on the picture desk.
“It could have been one of four people that could have done this,” he told jurors.
“I don’t remember anything about this email or the story or how it unfolded,” he said.
Edwards has been charged with conspiring to cause misconduct in public office after police found three emails CCed to the picture editor requesting cash payments.
He has denied the charge and told jurors he had never heard of either of the two public officials Pyatt was allegedly paying for tips.
In cross examination on Monday, Edwards told the jurors that typically his “payment girl” on the picture desk could be processing 400 payments a day. “I can’t sit on her shoulder,” he said.
Sometimes she, or someone else, would place a piece of paper in front of him when he was on the phone, he said, “You just sign it. You have to have some trust there”, he said, or otherwise he would not have been able to do his job.
On some occasions, he responded to requests for payments positively to help another department on the paper balance its budget, such as the newsdesk or the Bizarre showbusiness department, which had a very small budget compared to his £3m to £4m a year allowance.
He said a request for £350 was “a drop in the ocean”.
“Mr Pyatt was the only reporter in terms of out-of-the-office who would do this. Mr Pyatt was the news editor, he understood the system with budgets.”
Pyatt was “at an advantage certainly” by knowing how the system worked. “He was looked up to by staff” because of his former job as news editor, which was an extremely senior position on the paper.
He said that “quite often the budgets were ignored at the Sun” but if it got out of control bosses would come “steaming down” and department heads scrambled to help each other out.
“I could be £50,000 over one week and nobody would say a word. I could be £5,000 over another week and I could be called in by the managing editor, it was not an exact science.”
Repeatedly pushed on the issue of payment requests, Edwards became audibly exasperated, telling Glasgow that he had to trust his reporters.
Raising his voice, he told the jury that Pyatt had been on the paper 28 years and had been senior to him when he started on the paper. He had no reason to distrust him and that was why he skim read his emails, particularly if they were chasing up payments not yet made.
“On any newspaper it’s all about the day ahead, going back three weeks, you might as well be going back 10 years. It was a pain,” he said. “I’ve given you my answer, I couldn’t feel stronger about it.”
Asked why he didn’t give these answers to the police when arrested, Edwards became upset saying he didn’t want to recall that day.
“That day was the most traumatic day in my life. Thirteen policeman in my house in front of my daughter and my wife. For this?” he said pointing to the jury bundle.
Asked why he choose not to answer questions, he answered:“I was asked questions by the police, I was like a rabbit in front of the headlights. I have never been in trouble in my life … I was taking the advice of an expert.”
Edwards’ father, the veteran Sun royal photographer Arthur Edwards, tesiftied as a character witness, explaining that “while he’s my son, he’s also my line manager”.
He said that after 40 years’ experience at the paper, he knew the “pressure cooker” atmosphere there. Under editor Rebekah Brooks, “failure was never an option,” he said. She was “not always rational, but always demanding”. He was calm and coped with that pressure, Arthur said. He had never been involved in a criminal act.
Army reservist Robert Perry, who has known Edwards for 10 years, described him as “very, very selfless” and a man who had a “full functional moral compass”.
Edwards and Pyatt both deny all charges against them.
The trial continues.
