Andy Coulson, Ex-Cameron And Murdoch Aide, Charged With Perjury In UK

Police in Scotland charged a former spokesman of British Prime Minister David Cameron with perjury on Wednesday for remarks made in court over the phone hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire.

Before working for Cameron, Andy Coulson had been editor of the News of the World, the Murdoch tabloid that was shut last summer after it emerged that reporters had hacked into countless phone messages to obtain scoops.

Prosecutors said his arrest followed his appearance before the High Court in Glasgow in 2010 over a News of the World story published when he was editor.

Coulson, Cameron's communications director from 2007 to January 2011, told the court he had no knowledge of illegal activities by reporters while he was the paper's editor. He was arrested last July by police investigating phone hacking and bribery at the News of the World.

The former News of the World editor is alleged to have lied to the Glasgow court when he gave evidence at the perjury trial of Scottish socialist politician Tommy Sheridan in December 2010, while he was Cameron's chief media adviser and the government's head of communications, The Guardian reported.

He was detained by seven Strathclyde police officers from Operation Rubicon, a major inquiry into alleged perjury during Sheridan's trial and hacking allegations in Scotland, at his London home at 6:30 a.m. and taken north by car. Shortly before 10 Wednesday evening he was arrested and charged in connection with alleged perjury. He was then released from police custody.