News International phone hacking scandal the new allegations, along with high-ranking officers of the Metropolitan Police Service. News International's legal manager Tom Crone left the company on 13 July. As part of his role at the publisher, Crone had served as the "News of the World" chief lawyer and gave evidence before parliamentary committees, that he had uncovered no evidence of phone hacking beyond the criminal offences committed by the royal editor Clive Goodman. He maintained that he did not see an internal report suggesting that phone hacking at the paper went beyond Goodman. On 15 July, Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International,
2009–2011 News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations World" had rehired a private investigator shortly after his release from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail. The "News of the World" had used the investigator prior to his imprisonment, at a time when Coulson was deputy editor. In February 2010, "The Guardian" could not name Jonathan Rees as he was involved in a new criminal trial. In September 2010 "The Guardian" revealed that in 2009 plans by the Home Office to ask Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to review the police investigation into the phone hacking scandal were cancelled "after intense internal lobbying", with a senior Home Office official