Agence France-Presse |Â Associated Press
A British journalist on trial in connection with the long-running phone hacking scandal claimed Thursday that Princess Diana gave him a royal phone directory, the Agence France-Presse and Associated Press reported.
Clive Goodman, former News of the World royal editor, testified Diana sent him the directory in 1992, the same year she separated from her husband and heir to the throne, Prince Charles.
“She was going through a very, very difficult time. She told me she wanted me to see the scale of her husband’s staff and household, compared with others,” Goodman told London’s Old Bailey, where he is on trial.
Diana divorced Charles four years later. She died in a car crash in 1997.
Associated Press said Goodman was first arrested in 2006 on suspicion of hacking into the voice mails of aides to members of the royalty and was briefly jailed a year later. He now faces two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office. He has denied the charges.
News of the World’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, closed down the paper in 2011 after the wide scope of the phone hacking became known.
