LONDON (AP) — Sean Hoare was the kind of reporter who could knock back several whiskeys and a few lines of cocaine before filing salacious stories of celebrity misbehavior.
He was also the first journalist to say openly that his former friend and editor at the News of the World, Andy Coulson, knew about the tabloid’s widespread use of phone hacking.
His death this week added another twist to the scandal, which has forced the paper’s closure, brought down senior police officials and threatened to engulf the rest of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Hertfordshire police discovered Mr. Hoare’s body at his home north of London on Monday morning. They describe his death as “unexplained, but not suspicious,” and are waiting for the results of a post-mortem.
Journalists paid tribute to a man they remembered as an excellent reporter and a hard partier who got high and drunk with the celebrities he was meant to write about, while charming his sources to deliver scoops.
Nick Davies, the Guardian journalist whose reporting has driven the phone-hacking scandal, said Mr. Hoare described starting the day with a “rock star’s breakfast” — a line of cocaine and a Jack Daniel’s — and then carrying on drinking through the day while gathering gossip and filing stories.
Mr. Hoare’s career was intertwined with the careers of Mr. Coulson and Neil Wallis, two of the most senior News International editors who have been arrested in the phone-hacking scandal. Mr. Coulson is a particularly central figure since he links the scandal to Prime Minister David Cameron, for whom he worked as communications chief.
Mr. Hoare started his career in the late 1980s at local newspapers. His break came in the mid-1990s when he joined News International’s daily tabloid, the Sun, to write for its celebrity column Bizarre, then run by Mr. Coulson. He later worked for the Sunday People, a tabloid edited by Mr. Wallis. In 2001, he joined the News of the World, where Mr. Coulson was deputy editor and later editor.
Mr. Hoare regarded Mr. Coulson as a friend, but the two men clashed as Mr. Hoare’s heavy drinking and drug-taking became problematic. Mr. Hoare left the newspaper in 2005.
And then, in September, Mr. Hoare came out swinging.
He told the New York Times that Mr. Coulson’s claim that he did not know that News of the World employees were hacking into phones was untrue. Mr. Hoare claimed Mr. Coulson knew hacking took place and actively encouraged Mr. Hoare to intercept the voice mails of celebrities.
Following his comments, Scotland Yard interviewed Mr. Hoare about his allegations under caution — an interview that usually is recorded and can be used in later prosecutions. Mr. Hoare, angry that he was being treated like a suspect rather than a witness, said little.
“The police wanted to speak to him because he’d made some admissions, but nothing came of it,” his lawyer, David Sonn, told the Associated Press.
But Mr. Hoare continued to speak on phone hacking. The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Hoare told them News of the World reporters had paid police to use technology that could track people through their cellphone signals.
On a BBC program broadcast Monday night, Mr. Hoare said phone hacking was “endemic” in his former newspaper.
“People were scared. If you’ve got to get a story, you’ve got to get it. You’ve got to get that by whatever means. That is the culture of News International,” Mr. Hoare was heard saying.
No one can now ask him to elaborate. Hours before the BBC broadcast his comments, his body was found at his home in Watford, 20 miles north of London. Hertfordshire police said they went to his house because they had concerns for his welfare.
“Hoare hadn’t heard anything more from either police or News International, as far as I know,” Mr. Sonn said. “I spoke to him about a week ago, and he seemed fine.”
David Yelland, who edited the Sun from 1998 to 2003, said on Twitter: “Sean Hoare was trying to be honest, struggling with addiction. But he was a good man. My God.”
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