Legal Manager at News International who gave evidence that he thought NI's claim that the practice of phone-hacking was limited to one rogue reporter was "erroneous from the outset". He had given NI advice on phone-hacking as early as 2004. Told the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee about hacking allegations (in July 2009 and September 2011), stating that he had failed to find further evidence of hacking at the News of the World, following the jailing of the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman in 2007. The NoW closed in 2011 and Crone resigned from NI soon after. He was arrested in August 2012 on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications contrary to Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, and bailed. In 2014, the Crown Prosecution Service announced he would not face charges because of "insufficient evidence". In 2016, the Parliamentary privileges and standards committee found him in contempt of the House of Commons over the evidence he had submitted to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, resulting in a "formal admonishment".
English media executive and former newspaper editor. Editor of The Sun from 1981 to 1994, by then established as the British newspaper with the largest circulation in the UK. Answered questions on The Sun's use of private investigators ("never used them") and on paying public officials for information. He was in favour of public officials whistle-blowing to The Sun, he said, even if The Sun had to pay money.
English journalist for The Sun since 2003, having previously worked as a reporter at Mirror Group Newspapers. O'Shea gave evidence concerning The Sun's coverage in 2011 of the arrest of Christopher Jefferies.