News of the World registry. In 2006, reporters at the paper used private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile phone voicemail accounts held by a variety of people of interest to the newspaper. In 2007 the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and was jailed for four months; the paper's editor, Andy Coulson, had resigned two weeks earlier. In 2009/2010, further revelations emerged on the extent of the phone hacking, and how it was common knowledge within the "News of the World" and its News International parent. According to a former reporter at the
Media coverage in conjunction with the news media phone hacking scandal the Metropolitan Police Service held evidence that NGN journalists repeatedly used criminal methods to get stories. The articles also alleged that many people at "News of the World", including then editor Andy Coulson, were aware of widespread phone hacking and that the public and Parliament had been misled about its scope. Days after this became public, Max Clifford announced his intentions to sue and ultimately settled for £1,000,000. On 4 July 2011, "The Guardian" published an article disclosing that voicemail messages from Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked back in 2002 by an agent of "News of the World" looking