A former News of the World reporter has been spared jail after giving key evidence in the case against his old boss, Andy Coulson, in the phone-hacking trial.

Dan Evans last year admitted accessing the voicemails of some 200 celebrities, sports players and politicians, and listening to more than 1000 voicemails while working at the Sunday Mirror and after he was recruited by the News of the World.

The 38-year-old became the star prosecution witness in the Old Bailey hacking trial of former No 10 spin doctor Coulson, who earlier this month was found guilty of the hacking plot and jailed for 18 months.

Evans, from north London, pleaded guilty to two counts of phone hacking. He also admitted misconduct in a public office and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Mr Justice Saunders gave him a 10-month jail sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community.

He said he had taken into account Evans' guilty pleas and his agreement to give evidence in the hacking trial and possibly in the future.

He added: "In the circumstances of this case, and in particular the co-operation that Mr Evans has given and has agreed to give the police and the prosecution in the future as compared with the lack of co-operation from others, I do feel able to suspend the sentence for a period of 12 months.

"I would not have done that had Mr Evans not made a clean breast of his involvement in these offences."

Evans was found out in 2009 when designer Kelly Hoppen, Ms Miller's ex-stepmother, caught him attempting to hack her phone and launched a civil action which has now settled.

He had admitted paying a prison officer for stories about Soham killer Ian Huntley while Huntley was in jail at HMP Frankland near Durham.