Diana Leaked Palace Information to ‘take Charles on’

Princess Diana leaked information about the Royal Family to the press it was claimed yesterday by hacking scandal figure Clive Goodman.

The Old Bailey heard that Princess Diana leaked information as she wanted allies in the form of journalists in her bitter divorce battle with Charles.

News of the World journalist Clive Goodman said Diana sent him an internal phone directory for the Royal Household, known as the Green Book, to reveal the size of Charles’s palace staff.

Goodman has been accused of paying public officials for Royal Household directories but he revealed at the phone hacking trial that Diana sent the directory to him at work – even calling him twice to ensure he had received it.

He said the book, dated from 1992, arrived at his desk in an envelope, and he did not think he was the only one to receive a copy.

Charles and Diana separated in 1992 after an 11-year marriage, setting up separate households.

Goodman said: “She was going through a very, very tough time. She told me she wanted me to see this document, she wanted me to see the scale of her husband’s staff and household compared to hers.

“She was in a very bitter situation with the Prince of Wales at the time and she felt she was being swamped by his household.

“She was looking for an ally to take him on, to show the sort of forces that were ranged against her. We were quite a powerful organisation to have as an ally.”

Goodman, 56, the former royal editor at the now defunct News of the World Sunday tabloid, was asked if he was the only journalist Diana had sought out as an ally.

He replied: “Oh gosh no, there were several journalists.

“She was very close to Richard Kay at the Daily Mail, she was very close to Andrew Morton who went on to write her biography, and she was forming a relationship with Martin Bashir at Panorama.”

Diana eventually gave an interview to Panorama in 1995, in which she complained her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles meant there were three people in her marriage. It was shortly after this revelation that the couple divorced.

Goodman told the court he was given two more directories by a former valet for Prince Charles, Kenneth Stronach. He said the valet was ‘thoroughly fed up with working for the Royal Family and the Prince of Wales particularly’.

Goodman admitted that he had used the Green Book as a ‘glorified phone book’, contacting press officers and senior household members about stories outside of normal office hours.

Police found 15 directories at Goodman’s home in 2006. He said he could not remember where the other directories had come from but maintained that he had never paid a police officer for any directory or information for a story.

He also denied using the directories to help him to hack phones or ‘blag’ information.

The jury was told Goodman worked at the News of the World for 20 years before being arrested for phone hacking in 2006.

Goodman admitted hacking and was given a four-month jail sentence and sacked from the newspaper, although he later accepted a £140,000 settlement over a claim of unfair dismissal.

He was then arrested again in 2011 by police investigating hacking at the tabloid, and denies two charges of conspiring to commit misconduct by paying public officials for royal directories.

Goodman is not accused of hacking in this trial but is named as part of an alleged plot in which former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and successor Andy Coulson are accused of conspiring to hack phones.

They both deny the conspiracy and all seven defendants in the ongoing trial deny all charges against them.