Crowding reported in the departure lounge

Betting has opened on whether News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks can survive yesterday’s admissions by the News of the World over phone hacking. Besides her group responsibilities, Brooks was editor from 2000 to 2003 and whilst the NI statement only refers to the 2004-2006 period (Andy Coulson’s tenure) such contrived evasions by the fatally damaged outfit no longer carry any real conviction.

As far as the current story goes, and he would be first to admit it, Coulson is relatively old news. The confirmation of at least eight cases so far is expected to result in a disintegration of the facade which the newspaper’s management had erected. Recent arrests by the Met of Ian Edmondson and Neville Thurlbeck will also signal to current and former employees that there is no protection for past misdeeds. The CPS reportedly anticipate a rash of voluntary statements from staff eager to grass on each other in an attempt at mitigation or even immunity.

Among the targets might well be current editor Colin Myler, who told MPs after conducting his own investigation that he had studied 2,500 emails but not find evidence of phone hacking. Now lawyers acting for a series of celebrities and sporting names will have a go following a high court order which requires NI to hand over hundreds of internal emails sent by reporters & executives for examination.

Les Hinton, who was chief executive of News International during the ‘relevant period’, could also find himself in schtuck. He told MPs investigating allegations of widespread phone-hacking: "There was never firm evidence provided that implicated anybody else other than Clive [Goodman]. It just did not happen." Clive Goodman, the royal editor of the News of the World was jailed in January 2007.

Coulson isn’t entirely out of the picture though. He still has to explain why he said under oath: "I don't accept there was a culture of phone-hacking at the News of the World”. He may also find himself pressed to divulge the nature of certain payments received when he left the paper.