A central whistleblower in the Rupert Murdoch hacking scandal engulfing Britain was found dead Monday.
Sean Hoare - the hard-partying former showbiz reporter for Murdoch's News of the World, who ratted out his crooked boss - appears to have died of natural causes, police said. Hoare had accused former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who went on to become the Prime Minister's chief press spokesman, of ordering his staff to hack into voicemails and commit other crimes.Coulson was arrested 10 days ago.As part of his job, Hoare spent years snorting cocaine and drinking prodigiously with rock stars, the Guardian reported. His health was known to be ruined.Hoare was pronounced dead in his home around 11 a.m. Hertfordshire time.
"The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious," police said in a statement.The shocking turn of events came as the No. 2 at Scotland Yard resigned, a day after his boss - Britain's top cop - was also felled by the conflagration spreading to the highest reaches of the British government.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called an emergency session of Parliament to discuss the hacking scandal that has riveted Britain and threatens Murdoch's global empire. The emergency session will be Wednesday - a day after Murdoch and his son, James, are being hauled before Parliament for a much-anticipated grilling.
Moving at blinding speed, the crisis has started to threaten even Cameron, with opposition leaders questioning his cozy ties to the media baron known in England as the "dirty digger."
Cameron met with Murdoch executives more times last year than he met with representatives of all other news organizations put together. "Not a single figure from the BBC was granted an audience," the Guardian noted.Cameron's decision to hire Andy Coulson - a shady former Murdoch editor who was Hoare's boss at News of the World - as his press spokesman is also becoming a major liability."At the moment he seems unable to provide the leadership the country needs," said Labor Party leader Ed Miliband.
Cameron defended his actions as "very decisive" and cut short a trip to South Africa to return to London to cops with the scandal.
The head of Scotland Yard, Sir Paul Stephenson, quit Sunday amid questions about his ties to Murdoch, and his deputy, Assistant Commissioner John Yates, resigned Monday.Yates decided two years ago not to re-open police inquiries into phone hacking, saying he did not believe there was any new evidence.
He has said in recent weeks he regrets that decision. The political shake-up came as Murdoch's protege, News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, was hauled in for nine hours of questioning by police Sunday - an indignity her lawyer said would have ramifications."She is not guilty of any criminal offense," Stephen Parkinson said.
Police will in due course have to give an account of their actions, and in particular their decision to arrest her, with the enormous reputational damage that this has involved."
Murdoch, who has seen his all-encompassing influence in England quickly erode, has been desperate to keep the crisis from spreading to the U.S., where he owns the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News.
The FBI announced last week it was opening an inquiry into reports that Murdoch's minions had possibly tried to hack into the voicemails of 9/11 victims.
The scandal has been brewing for several years amid revelations that reporters for The News of the World had hacked into the voicemails of politicians, celebrities and sports figures.
Public revulsion spiked after it recently emerged the paper - and perhaps others owned by Murdoch - had broken into the voicemail systems of a murdered teen, terrorist victims and slain soldiers.
A QUICK HANDLE ON THE SCANDAL
GENESIS
Between 2000 and 2005, reporters at News of the World hacked into the phones of as many as 4,000 people and also bribed cops for information.
IN THE PAST
In 2006, the News of the World's royal editor and a private eye he paid were jailed for hacking royal family phones. Murdoch executives said it was the work of a rogue reporter and denied any widespread phone hacking. A police probe fizzled.
WHY NOW?
The scandal exploded in July 2011 when the Guardian newspaper revealed there were many hundreds of hacking victims, including Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old missing murdered girl.
New revelations included huge secret payoffs to hacking victims and that top Murdoch executives hid emails showing wider wrongdoing for years.
FALLOUT:
* News of the World closed after 168 years.
* The head of Scotland Yard quit Sunday. His No. 2 quit Monday.
* Ten people arrested, including a former News of the World editor who became Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman.
* Cameron's government in trouble as Murdoch's cozy relations with top pols becomes page one news.
* Murdoch forced to withdraw his bid to takeover British Sky Broadcasting.
* Murdoch cut loose his "surrogate daughter," top news executive Rebekah Brooks, and one of his oldest friends, Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton.
* Multiple police and government investigations now looking into other Murdoch papers.
* FBI probe into whether victims of the 9/11 attack in New York were hacked.
* Murdoch and son James to testify before Parliament Tuesday.
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