Phone-hacking: NoW reporter Neville Thurlbeck takes publisher to tribunal

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Source: The Guardian

A News of the World reporter at the heart of the phone-hacking scandal is taking the defunct tabloid's publishers to an employment tribunal, claiming he was a whistleblower.

Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's former chief reporter, is claiming that he was unfairly dismissed by Rupert Murdoch's News Interrnational. There is scheduled to be a preliminary employment tribunal hearing in east London this Friday. It has only just come to light that Thurlbeck – who had been behind a string of high-profile exclusives at the News of the World – had been fired by the company.

News International said: "We will vigorously contest this case." Thurlbeck was arrested in April on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting mobile phone voicemail messages but remained on the payroll of the paper until recently, possibly this month.

Thurlbeck has been a key figure in the phone-hacking scandal – his name appeared on an email sent to private investigator Glenn Mulcaire which contained a transcript of messages left on a mobile phone belonging to professional footballers association chief executive Gordon Taylor.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/27/phone-hacking-neville-thurlbeck-tribunal