Murdoch attack: wife leaps to tycoon's rescue at hacking inquiry

Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a demonstrator as he gave evidence to MPs at the House of Commons today.

A man charged the tycoon and threw a plate of shaving foam at him amid gasps of disbelief. But Mr Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng lashed out at the attacker to protect her husband. She shoved the pie in the protester's face and much of the foam ended up on the man.

Police rushed to arrest the attacker and drag him away. But there were questions about how the man got past heavy police security without raising suspicion.

The man, was later named as Jonathan May-Bowles, 26. He had been sitting in the public seats before he suddenly hurled the foam, shouting "You are a greedy billionaire".

Earlier, Rupert Murdoch explained Rebekah Brooks' resignation from News International to the committee, saying she was suffering from "extreme anguish" over the phone hacking scandal.

Asked why he refused her resignation at first, Mr Murdoch said: "Because I believed her and I trusted her and I do trust her.

"In the event she just insisted. She was at the point of... extreme anguish."

Tory MP Philip Davies demanded; "Can you tell us how much all of these characters have been paid off?"

Mr Murdoch said details were confidential. "In the case of Mr Hinton it will certainly be considerable because of the pension for 52 years service."

The tycoon's historic appearance began with the remarkable statement: "This is the most humble day of my life."

It came as son James apologised to phone hacking victims, promising their embattled media empire would ensure it never happened again.

His 80-year-old father, sitting beside him, touched his arm to interrupt and said: "To add to that, I would just like to add one sentence. This is the most humble day of my life. Thank you."

In a halting performance, Murdoch senior claimed he was not kept informed of alleged criminal behaviour at the News of the World and £1 million pay-offs to victims. He looked weary as he claimed he knew almost nothing about the phone hacking until recently and could not remember crucial details.

Asked who he blamed for the closure of the News of the World, he said: "They caught us with dirty hands. The important point was we had broken our trust with our readers".

He denied there was any evidence that the phones of 9/11 victims were hacked. "We have seen no evidence of that and as far as we know the FBI haven't either."

Mr Murdoch sat before members of the culture select committee to answer questions about the hacking of phones belonging to Milly Dowler, 7/7 victims and celebrities.

He arrived at the Commons to a febrile atmosphere with crowds gathered outside." The keenly-awaited session was delayed while protesters were ejected from the room.

Chairman John Whittingdale then slapped down James who asked for permission to make a statement.

The dramatic exchanges began when Mr Murdoch came face to face with Labour MP Tom Watson who led the campaign to expose details of the hacking and police corruption.

Mr Watson asked if he had carried out an investigation into the scandal.
Mr Murdoch said: "No".

Asked why not he said: "This is a not an excuse, it is an explanation of my laxity. The News of the World is less than one per cent of my company. We employ 50,000 people around the world, proud and ethical people and professionals."

Fumbling for words, he said he had "appointed people whom I trust to run those divisions".
Asked by Mr Watson what he knew of the phone hacking allegations, Mr Murdoch said he only learned about developments as they came out in the media.

He said he was "absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed" when he heard about the Milly Dowler case. Mr Watson then turned to the £700,000 pay-off approved by James to cover-up the phone-hacking of football union boss Gordon Taylor.
He asked Rupert: "Were you aware of the payments to Gordon Taylor?" Rupert replied: "No."

Mr Watson asked James: "You didn't tell your father?" James replied: "My father became aware of the settlement after it became public. The settlement of a civil claim of that nature is something that would normally be authorised in a company of our size would below the approval threshold of my father as chairman.

Mr Watson asked Rupert: "When did you know (phone-hacking) was endemic?" He replied: "Endemic is a very wide-ranging word and I have to be extremely careful not to prejudice the course of justice.

"I was absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case two weeks ago."

Mr Murdoch senior also said he had not been made aware of the select committee's report which accused News International executives of "collective amnesia".

James interjected to say it might be "helpful" if he answered detailed questions, and that the amount of money paid to Mr Taylor was not big enough to need reporting to his father as global boss of News Corp.

But Mr Watson replied: "Your father is responsible for corporate governance and serious wrongdoing has been brought about in the company. And it is revealing in itself what he doesn't know and what executives chose not to tell him."

Mr Murdoch admitted that former Director of Public Prosecutions, Lord Macdonald, had told the News Corp board that a review had found evidence of "indirect hacking, breaches of national security and very serious crime".

But asked by Labour's Jim Sheridan if he felt responsible for the scandals, Mr Murdoch replied: "No." Asked who was, he said: "The people I trusted to run the companies."

Asked why nobody was fired in April when News International admitted that the News of the World had been engaged in the interception of voicemails, Mr Murdoch said "it was not our job" to pursue justice.

"It was up to the police to carry out their investigation which we were 100 per cent co-operating with," he added.

James blamed the police, Press Complaints Commission and company lawyers for failing to alert them to the scale of the scandal.