James Murdoch was sent email in 2008 suggesting phone hacking was 'rife' at NOTW

News International boss James Murdoch was sent two e-mails in 2008 suggesting that phone hacking was "rife" at the now defunct British tabloid News of the World, it has emerged.

The mails included one from Colin Myler, the editor of the News of the World at the time, who said the company faced a "nightmare scenario" after it emerged that a second journalist had sent an email with details of a hacked conversation.

According to the Telegraph, the emails relate to discussions over a payment to be made to Gordon Taylor, the head of the Professional Footballers' Association, whose mobile phone messages were hacked.

"James... Update on the Gordon Taylor case. Unfortunately it is as bad as we feared," read an email Myler sent to Murdoch on June 7, 2008.

At the time, News International was negotiating an out-of-court settlement with Taylor worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, allegedly because Taylor and his lawyers had obtained evidence that phone hacking was not restricted to a single rogue reporter.

According to the report, Myler included two emails, one from Tom Crone, the lawyer at the News of the World, and another from Julian Pike, a partner at Farrer and Co, a firm of solicitors advising the newspaper on the case.

Crone's email referred the "the Ross Hindley email" which could ontain details of hacked voicemails.

The email from Pike warned the News of the World that Taylor's lawyer "wants to demonstrate that what happened to him is/was rife throughout the organisation. He wants to correct the paper telling Parliamentary enquiries that this was not happening when it was."

Crone yesterday told the Leveson Inquiry he had feared phone hacking would "come back to bite" the News of the World four years before the scandal forced its closure.

According to the paper, Murdoch admitted that he had been sent the emails, but claimed he had not had time to read them in full. (ANI)