Former News of the World reporter and News Corp whistleblower Sean Hoare was found dead at his home earlier today. In an investigation last year of the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed News Corp, Hoare told the New York Times that Prime Minister David Cameron's aide and former editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, "was fully aware of the hacking" that was going on at the tabloid. The Guardian reports that the police are stating that Hoare's death is "being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious."
After speaking with the Times, Hoare told the BBC that he was personally asked by Coulson to hack into celebrities' phone accounts. Hoare wrote about show business for The Sun (another Murdoch-owned British tabloid) and News of the World before being "dismissed for drink and drug problems." Coulson, who has been arrested for his role in the scandal, has denied the allegations, claiming that he "never condoned the use of phone-hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone-hacking took place."
