Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is “very ambitious but not ruthless”, the jury in his trial for alleged phone hacking has heard from one of his oldest friends.
Dean Keyworth told the Old Bailey that he had met Coulson while he was a 19-year-old journalism student – before he embarked on a successful career in the media and later politics.
Coulson, 45, denies conspiring with others to hack phones between October 3, 2000 and August 9, 2006 during the time he worked at the now-defunct tabloid.
Keyworth told the jury: “He is a very loyal friend and despite becoming extremely busy and very important he retained his friendships, he took care of them and the few people who were close to him.”
“He is very ambitious but I don’t think he is ruthless,” the witness said, adding that Coulson “wanted to get the story but not at any cost”.
The witness also said the two would have fun in nightclubs and at celebrity parties during Coulson’s time as editor of showbiz column Bizarre.
He described his friend of 26 years as “self-deprecating” and someone who “played himself down”.
The court heard that Keyworth met with then editor of the NoW Rebekah Brooks in April 2002 while she holidayed in Dubai with her former husband Ross Kemp.
Coulson, who was NoW deputy editor at the time and who the court has previously heard was in a secret relationship with his boss Brooks, put his friend and lover in contact so that he could arrange a stay for her and Kemp at the seven-star Burj Al-Arab hotel.
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