The former royal editor of the now-defunct News of the World (NotW) warned his managing editor that he was aware that if payments to his confidential sources were traced, they would all be jailed, the phone-hacking trial has heard.
In an email to former managing editor Stuart Kuttner, which he forwarded to Kuttner's PA Beverley Stokes, Clive Goodman discussed the contacts that he only paid in cash.
Two were "in uniform" while the third worked at a rival newspaper and was therefore taking a serious risk, the jury at the Old Bailey was told.
The email of July 2005, which was shown to the jury, said: "Morning, Stuart. Understand that, as you know, there are only three people I ever pay in cash.
"Two are in uniform and we - them, you, me, the editor - would all end up in jail if anyone traced their payments.
"Thanks to the way we pay them, they're untraceable."
When reassured by Mrs Stokes that the payments were going to be made, Goodman told the PA: "Fantastic. I won't be found in the Thames wearing concrete wellies tonight."
NotW and Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire; Andy Coulson, also 45, from Charing in Kent; Ian Edmondson, 44, from Raynes Park, south west London; and Kuttner, 73, from Woodford Green, Essex, all deny conspiring with others to hack phones between October 3 2000 and August 9 2006.
The trial continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article