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"Prime Minister David Cameron has apologised for putting Andy Coulson at the centre of government by hiring him as his director of communications. Coulson had previously been director of communications for the Conservative Party, being hired by Cameron in July 2007, less than six months after his resignation as editor of the News of the World when the phone hacking scandal first came to light.   Coulson was appointed Director of Communications at Number 10 after Cameron became prime minister in May 2010, and resigned in January 2011, citing &amp;quot;continued coverage&amp;quot; of the phone hacking allegations. Cameron promised to give a &amp;quot;full and frank apology&amp;quot; should Coulson be convicted of hacking charges, as he was today (June 24) at the Old Bailey.      &amp;quot;I take full responsibility for employing Andy Coulson,&amp;quot; Cameron said in a statement early on Tuesday afternoon. &amp;quot;I did so on the basis of undertakings I was given by him about phone hacking and those turned out not to be the case. &amp;quot;I always said that if they turned out to be wrong, I would make a full and frank apology and I did that today. I am extremely sorry that I employed him. It was the wrong decision and I am very clear about that.&amp;quot;  Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne added: &amp;quot;I too am very sorry for the decision we made to employ Andy Coulson. He gave us assurances that turned out not to be the case.  &amp;quot;We gave him a second chance but, knowing what we now know, it&amp;#039;s clear that we made the wrong decision. It&amp;#039;s important for the victims of phone hacking that this has now been properly dealt with by the courts; and it matters for us all that we have a free and vibrant press which operates within the law.&amp;quot; However, leader of the opposition Ed Miliband has said that he feels the Conservative leader still has &amp;quot;very very serious questions to answer&amp;quot; over Coulson, accusing Cameron of &amp;quot;[bringing] a criminal into the heart of Downing Street&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;I believe this isn&amp;#039;t just a serious error of judgment,&amp;quot; said the Labour leader. &amp;quot;This taints David Cameron&amp;#039;s government because we now know that he put his relationship with Rupert Murdoch ahead of doing the right thing when it came to Andy Coulson.  &amp;quot;I think David Cameron must do much more than an apology \u2013 he owes the country an explanation for why he did not act, why he did not act on these allegations against Andy Coulson, why as the evidence piled up he didn&amp;#039;t do anything about it and he&amp;#039;s got to explain.&amp;quot; Coulson was today (June 24) found guilty of conspiring to hack phones. His co-defendants Rebekah Brooks, Cheryl Carter, Charlie Brooks, Stuart Kuttner and Mark Hanna were found not guilty of all charges. The jury is still considering further charges against Coulson and former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, and will be allowed to give a majority verdict. Trial judge Mr Justice Saunders has told the court he has been made aware of comment made since verdicts have been announced, and has called for restraint. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/media/news/a580023/prime-minister-david-cameron-extremely-sorry-for-hiring-andy-coulson/>