Andy Coulson, Former News Of The World Editor, Detained On Perjury Charges

In the most recent development of the scandal that has rocked Rupert Murdoch's disgraced News of the World tabloid, former editor Andy Coulson has been detained on perjury charges over court testimony about phone hacking.

Coulson, 44, has been taken into custody by Scottish police as a part of an investigation into phone hacking and perjury at the trial of politician Tommy Sheridan.

The former editor was hired by British Prime Minister David Cameron to run his communications team after he resigned from his News of the World position.

The perjury charges are in reference to a December 2010 case before the Scottish High Court in Glasgow when Coulson denied on the stand that he had ever met or spoken to a private detective employed by News of the World to hack phones, according to British press reports at the time.

I'm saying that I had absolutely no knowledge of it, Mr. Coulson declared on the stand in 2010, speaking of politician Tommy Sheridan's assertion that Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator who worked extensively for The News of the World, had hacked his phone. I certainly didn't instruct anyone to do anything at the time, or anything else that was untoward.

Coulson also reportedly denied that he had condoned or even known about phone hacking or other illegal reporting techniques while he was editor of The News of the World. I don't accept there was a culture of phone hacking at The News of the World, he testified.

Coulson eventually resigned from his post at News of the World after Mulcaire and another journalist at the paper, Clive Goodman, were convicted of phone hacking.

The former editor was quoted as saying that while he had to take ultimate responsibility for what happened, he maintained that Mr. Goodman was a rogue reporter and that phone hacking had not extended beyond him.

Coulson was arrested separately by London police last year on suspicion of conspiracy to hack phones and bribe officials, but was released on bail.

While Phone hacking at News of the World has sparked three separate investigations by police in London, two parliamentary probes and a judge-led independent inquiry, Coulson is currently being held in connection with a separate Scottish police investigation into the hacking scandal.