Evans 'co-operated in hope of avoiding prosecution'

Dan Evans - the former reporter from the News of the World - accepts that he was hoping to avoid prosecution over the hacking scandal.

Under cross examination by Timothy Langdale QC, he agreed that he hoped by co-operating with the police he might not be charged.

He said that until this point he had been lying, he described his statements given on oath during a civil case brought by Kelly Hoppen as "cobblers".

Evans, who has admitted to hacking more than 1,000 phones, said that he felt under tremendous pressure to lie while he was working at News International, who owned News of the World.

He said: "There was an enormous conspiracy which I'd been caught up in...I was towing the line, the party line, the company line."

He admitted that when he lied about his involvement in hacking Kelly Hoppen's phone - an offence he now accepts he committed - he was "a very frightened man".

He said he was caught between, "tabloid headlines, the prime minister and highly paid lawyers."

Dan Evans also accepted that Andy Coulson may not have said the word "brilliant" after he was allegedly played an illegally obtained voice message.