A former news editor at Britain's News of the World has pleaded guilty to conspiring to hack the phones of celebrities, politicians and royals.

Ian Edmondson is the eighth person convicted over illegal eavesdropping at the now-defunct tabloid.

He originally went on trial last year alongside former editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and several others. He was dropped as a defendant after a judge ruled him unfit to stand trial.

On Friday he appeared at London's Central Criminal Court and admitted conspiring with colleagues and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire to intercept voicemails between 2000 and 2006.

He will be sentenced later.

 

Owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the News of the World in July 2011 after the revelation that it had hacked the phone of a 13-year-old murder victim.