Andy Coulson

Andrew Edward Coulson (born 21 January 1968) is an English journalist and political strategist.

He attended Beauchamps High School, a secondary school and sixth form college, from 1979 to 1986.

Coulson's parents moved from their Basildon council house to nearby Wickford during his childhood.

Coulson started work at 18 as a junior reporter on the Basildon Echo in 1986.

In 1988, he moved to The Sun, working with Piers Morgan on the showbiz column Bizarre.

In 1994, he briefly moved to the Daily Mail, but after nine weeks moved back to The Sun to edit Bizarre.

He hired Dominic Mohan, who was later promoted to editor.

He became deputy editor of the News of the World, the Sunday sister paper of The Sun, in 2000.

Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 to 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.

Coulson replaced Rebekah Wade as editor in 2003.

In an interview with the Press Gazette in 2005, he said that "tabloid newspapers in this country do more for its people than any other newspapers in the world".

Coulson resigned on 26 January 2007 over the News of the World phone hacking affair which would several weeks later see the jailing for four months of the paper's Royal correspondent Clive Goodman.

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, remunerated by the newspaper, was given a custodial sentence of six months.

Coulson became the Conservative Party's director of communications on 9July 2007.

Various media stories estimated his salary at between £275,000 and £475,000; the party indicated the latter figure was "inaccurate" and that his salary was "substantially less" but refused to provide an exact figure.

In 2008 an employment tribunal upheld a claim of bullying by Coulson while he was at the News of The World.

A Stratford employment tribunal upheld a claim of unfair dismissal claimed by senior sports writer Matt Driscoll, and stated "We find the behaviour to have been a consistent pattern of bullying behaviour".

The judgement singled out Coulson for making "bullying" remarks in an email to Driscoll.

The paper was told to pay Driscoll £800,000.

On 21 July 2009 Coulson appeared in front of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee and denied any knowledge of the phone hacking scandal, saying "my instructions to the staff were clear – we did not use subterfuge of any kind unless there was a clear public interest in doing so. They were to work within the PCC code at all times".

Coulson was also tried over charges that he committed perjury in the evidence he gave in HM Advocate v Sheridan and Sheridan in 2010.

After David Cameron became Prime Minister in May 2010, he appointed Coulson as Director of Communications for the government at 10 Downing Street.

His pay was £140,000, the highest paid special advisor.

He subsequently joined David Cameron's personnel as communications director, until announcing his departure on 21January 2011 because of continued media coverage of the phone-hacking affair.

The overall impact from his tenure came to be known as the "Coulson effect".

Coulson was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service on 8July 2011 in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.

Coulson announced his resignation on 21 January 2011.

He commented about the News of the World allegations "I stand by what I've said about those events but when the spokesman needs a spokesman it's time to move on."

In July 2011 questions were raised about Coulson's security vetting at Number Ten.

He had not been subjected to the highest level of vetting, "developed vetting", allowing unrestricted access to top secret material.

His predecessors had had the highest level of vetting, as did his successor and (after his departure) his deputy.

The Guardian said that the disclosure "is understood to have 'absolutely shocked' some Whitehall information staff."

According to Chris Bryant MP, senior officials working with Coulson believed that he had the same clearance level as his predecessor.

He was detained and charged with perjury by Strathclyde Police on 30May 2012 in relation to evidence he had given in the trial of Scottish politician Tommy Sheridan in 2010, and cleared on 3June 2015.

In June 2014 at the Old Bailey, Coulson was found guilty of a charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemails (phone-hacking).

He was sentenced on 4July 2014 to 18 months in prison.

On 30June 2014, it was announced that he would face a retrial over two counts of conspiring to cause misconduct in public office – in relation to the alleged purchase of confidential royal phone directories in 2005 from a palace police officer – after the jury in the original trial was unable to reach a verdict on them.

This trial started on 11May 2015 because of the general election.

On 3June 2015, he was cleared of those perjury charges, since, if he had lied, it would not have been relevant to the outcome.

Coulson grew up in Wickford, Essex.