Did James Murdoch misled the UK House of Commons committee over his knowledge of the News of the World scandal?

That’s what two former NotW executives claim, calling Murdoch’s statement on a settlement paid to a NotW victim”mistaken”.

Colin Myler, editor of the paper until its closure last fortnight, and Tom Crone, former head of legal affairs, released a statement that rebuts Murdoch’s claims he was unaware of email evidence that proved more than one “rogue reporter” was involved prior to settling a payout to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association.

The pair’s statement in The Guardian reads:

“Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday’s Culture, Media Select Committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch’s recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken.

“In fact, we did inform him of the ‘for Neville’ email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor’s lawyers.”

Dubbed the “for Neville” email due to its connection with former chief NotW report Neville Thurlbeck, the email apparently destroys News International’s original claim that the NotW phone hacking was limited to just royal reporter Clive Goodman. It’s regarded as a critical piece of evidence by authorities and seen as crucial in news International’s decision to pay out £700,000 to Taylor.

In response, News Corp released a one line press release from James that stated: “I stand behind my testimony to the Select Committee”.

Evidence from a 2006 Information Commission inquiry — which studied the use of a private investigator by 31 different UK publications — has been given to the latest Scotland Yard inquiry into News International phone hacking and police bribes. Reports The Guardian:

“The files were the basis for the information commissioner’s report, in 2006, entitled What Price Privacy Now?, which identified 3,522 occasions when 305 journalists requested information that the commission believed was likely to have been obtained illegally.”

There are now 60 police officers investigating the allegations against News International.

Another former NotW reporter has got the boot from News International, with Matt Nixson getting fired from his current job at The Sun, another News International paper, after an internal investigation.

After the Murdochs were questioned over News International continuing to pay the legal bills for former NotW private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, News International cancelled the payments “with immediate effect”. This might stop Mulcaire’s silence over which NotW executives were involved, says The Guardian.

The UK high court ruled this week that actor Hugh Grant and socialite Jemima Khan are entitled to view Mulcaire’s files on them, after their phones were hacked, in order to help in their damages claim against News International.

Meanwhile, the FBI preliminary inquiry into alleged phone hacking of 9/11 victims and their families is under way, with New York Police and a victims group already contacted by the FBI and so far no information or allegations of hacking have been uncovered. The preliminary research is likely to continue for weeks or even months and the US investigators are expected to meet with their UK counterparts to discuss their findings.