LONDON — The former editor of the News of the World received payments and benefits from the newspaper while working as an aide to Conservative leader David Cameron, the BBC reported Tuesday.
Andy Coulson resigned from the now-defunct tabloid early in 2007 after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed for hacking into the voicemails of royal staff.
Six months later he was hired as communications chief to Cameron, then Britain’s opposition leader. Cameron became prime minister in May 2010.
The BBC, without giving its source, reported that Coulson continued to receive severance pay amounting to several hundred thousand dollars from the paper until the end of 2007, and also kept his health care plan and company car.
Coulson denied knowing about phone hacking, but resigned from Downing St. in January after police reopened their inquiry into wrongdoing at the paper.
Talk about a smoking gun
