Andy Coulson denies knowing Milly Dowler's phone was hacked while he was editor of the News of the World
Former editor of the News of the World Andy Coulson denied knowing Milly Dowler's phone was hacked while he was in charge of the paper.
The former Downing Street spin doctor said he did not know anything about the resulting "fairly unremarkable story" adding he did not even rate it.
He told the Old Bailey: "This is a hoax wrapped in a riddle so I don't think I rated this story."
Coulson told jurors he did not remember it, or recall speaking to then editor Rebekah Brooks about it, and was unaware that managing editor Stuart Kuttner had spoken to Surrey Police about it.
All three deny conspiring to hack phones.The 46-year-old was at the helm of the Sunday paper in April 2002 when Brooks was on holiday in Dubai and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire hacked Milly's voicemails.
A message left on the murdered schoolgirl's phone suggested she may have applied for work in a factory in Telford, prompting the NotW to dispatch reporters to chase the story.
Coulson, who was deputy editor at the time, said he remembered a conversation about the theory, possibly in conference, but said: "I thought it was nonsense because Milly Dowler was a 13-year-old schoolgirl."
He said images of the missing teenager had been widely circulated so: "The idea that she could walk into a factory and take a job just seemed ludicrous to me."
"The paper believed internally that, very sadly, the most likely probability was that Milly Dowler was dead."