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Whistleblower’s death not suspicious, police confirm

A postmortem into the death of phone-hacking whistleblower Sean Hoare has confirmed that his death was not suspicious, police said last night.

Mr Hoare, a former Watford Observer reporter who went on to work for the News of the World, was found dead at his home on Monday morning.

Last September, he reignited the phone-hacking scandal by claiming that his former editor at the now defunct Sunday tabloid, Andy Coulson, had encouraged him to intercept voicemail messages.

He told both the New York Times and BBC Radio Four that phone-hacking was “endemic” on the NoTW and that Mr Coulson was “well aware” of the existence of the practice.  Mr Coulson has always denied the claims.

The postmortem, conducted by a Home Office-accredited forensic pathologist, was carried out yesterday afternoon.

Although it is clear the death was not suspicious, the actual cause of death will not be known until the results of toxicology tests which could take several weeks.

A Hertfordshire police spokesperson said:   “There is no evidence of third-party involvement and the death is non suspicious.  There is an ongoing examination of health problems identified at the postmortem.”

“There was no suicide note found at the scene.  We cannot categorically say one way or another whether this was suicide, as we have not got the toxicology results.”

Further tributes to Mr Hoare came from former Watford Observer colleagues yesterday in a piece published on the paper’s website.

Simon Ricketts, now a journalist on The Guardian, described Mr Hoare  as “a lovely generous man” who took him under his wing during a spell of work experience at the Observer.

He said: “He handed me a story on a plate. I went out to investigate, got all my notes and got back to the office and started to write it.”

“I finished and Sean had a look. He got my notebook, extracted the best quotes, the one’s I’d left in the notebook. He tickled, edited and expanded my story.

“By the time he’d finished, it was 100 times better. It got put on the front page of the paper. Sean insisted that my name go on the story.

“When the paper came out, he walked over with a copy. He gave me it with a flourish. ‘Congratulations on your first-ever splash,’ he said.”

Group editor Peter Wilson-Leary said: “I saw Sean last year. He was still the smiling, cheeky chappy I remember from the late 1980s.”

And journalist and broadcaster Adam Parsons, who started his career at the Observer and is now a columnist for the newspaper, described him as “one of the most charismatic people you could ever meet.”

8 comments

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  • July 20, 2011 at 10:51 am
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    So, with no toxicology tests results, Hertfordshire police state, ‘the death was not suspicious’?

    Seems to me as if they are following the South Yorkshire pracice of refusing any investigation by pre-judging prior to the facts.

    There is an obvious ‘elephant in the room’ here, in that this man was – it seems – pivotal in the current disgraceful ‘outings’ of policicians, police and press.

    That makes his death ‘suspicious’.

    Can somebody tell the police that?

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  • July 20, 2011 at 10:59 am
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    So, Mr Hoare’s death was ‘not suspicious’?

    Is Hertfordshire police following the line of South Yorkshire police, by pre-judging the non-investigation before the facts are available?

    With no toxicology results yet available, there is no possible reason for the ‘not suspicious’ comments of the (senior?) Hertfordshire Police Officer.

    Mr Hoare had every reason to stay alive with the current glorious result of his original ‘trip to the New York Times’

    The comment above that: “There is an ongoing examination of health problems identified at the postmortem” might indicate that whatever the result, Mr Hoare’s death will be blamed on his ‘ongoing health problems’.

    The police mind is wonmderful, isn’t it?

    Perhaps someone could pop round to Hertfordshire Police and tell them how an investigation should be run (first you gather actual facts – then you look to see what they might mean)

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  • July 20, 2011 at 1:58 pm
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    OK – so we’re expected to believe that the death of a key witness just before the Murdochs are due to appear before the MPs is not suspicious?? We’re also told that there is no evidence of suicide – I think we can agree on that – the suspicion is not suicide but murder. Until the toxicology reports are available how can it be said that it’s not suspicious?
    Surely toxicology tests can be carried out much more rapidly if the police (or others) wanted to get to the truth (maybe I’ve hit the nail on the head there!).
    Smells like another Mr Kelly and his weapons of mass destruction scenario.
    If I’m found dead in the near future I wish it to be known that it wasn’t suicide

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  • July 20, 2011 at 2:30 pm
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    I’ll tell you what is suspicious. The Police who investigated this case.

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  • July 20, 2011 at 3:26 pm
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    Let me see if I have this straight. The police do not know the cause of death, but they have concluded that his death is not suspicious.

    Sean Hoare’s death, itself, is suspicious. The fact that he is dead- no matter what is the cause- is suspicious. If he was struck by lightning, that would be suspicious.

    Are the police kidding me?

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  • July 20, 2011 at 4:12 pm
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    The initial whistleblower found dead, and they say it’s “not suspicious”! Who do they think they are kidding?

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  • July 20, 2011 at 4:51 pm
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    The police ‘just happened’ to go by the house to check on him…
    who ‘just happened’ to die before anyone could ask more questions?

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  • July 21, 2011 at 9:25 am
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    The quick announcement that Mr. Hoare’s death is not suspicious is suspicious.

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