News of the World reporter pulls out of unfair dismissal hearing

Neville Thurlbeck, the paper’s former chief reporter, has withdrawn from an employment tribunal hearing due to take place on Friday A News of the World reporter claiming he had blown the whistle on phone hacking at the Sunday tabloid has pulled out of an employment tribunal hearing in his unfair dismissal case . Neville Thurlbeck, the paper’s former chief reporter, was due to appear for a hearing related to his case at East London Tribunal Service in Stratford on Friday but has withdrawn. He was sacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News International earlier this month and was asking the tribunal to force the company to continue to pay him on the grounds that he was a whistleblower and should not have been fired. News International confirmed that he had now withdrawn this “application for interim relief”. It is not clear however whether he will continue with a case for unfair dismissal. His unfair dismissal case emerged earlier this week. Thurlbeck has been a central figure in the affair and was arrested and bailed in April on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages. Earlier this week he was re-bailed until March pending further questioning. The Guardian revealed two years ago the existence of a “for Neville” email – believed to be a reference to Thurlbeck – sent to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, which contained a transcript of messages left on a mobile phone belonging to Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor. The “for Neville” email contradicted the defence that News International had maintained until late 2010, that phone-hacking was limited to Mulcaire and one “rogue reporter” on the News of the World, former royal editor Clive Goodman. Both were jailed in early 2007 for phone-hacking offences. •

Posted by on September 29, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.