James Murdoch asked to clarify hacking testimony

London: British lawmakers have demanded that James Murdoch clarify why testimony he gave to a parliamentary committee probing the phone hacking scandal conflicted with a statement from two former executives.

Murdoch, deputy chief operating officer of media giant News Corp, and his father, tycoon Rupert Murdoch, testified about the widening allegations of phone tapping and bribery at the Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid.

The demand from legislators came as police confirmed a second inquiry team will be formed to investigate allegations computers may have also been hacked as well as mobile phone voicemail messages.

Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee said on Friday it now wanted more information from the younger Murdoch because his testimony was disputed by former News of the World editor Colin Myler and Tom Crone, former lawyer for News Corp's British arm, News International.

Contradicting

The two men released a statement contradicting Murdoch's claim that he was not aware of an email containing information about hacked voicemails, saying they did inform him of the document.

John Whittingdale, the parliamentary committee's chair, said he was writing Murdoch, Myler and Crone. "We are going to write to ask for further details from various areas where evidence is disputed," he said.

He said the committee decided not to take the additional step of recalling Murdoch to another hearing, saying they wanted to consider his written answers first. "I suspect it very likely that we will want to hear oral evidence. If they do come back with statements that are quite plainly different from those given by James Murdoch, we will want to hear James Murdoch's response to that," he said.

Mulcaire denial

The private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal denied suggestions he acted without orders from the newspaper.

In an attack on the News International, Glenn Mulcaire said he was "effectively employed" by the tabloid publisher from 2002 as a private investigator and had not acted "unilaterally" when he intercepted voicemails.

"As an employee he acted on the instructions of others," a statement issued by his lawyers said. His comments came 24 hours after it emerged that Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was abducted and murdered in 2000, learned Mulcaire may have targeted her phone. Payne said she was "very distressed and upset" at the news.