"Fresh questions about the extent of James Murdoch’s knowledge of the phone-hacking scandal were raised on Tuesday [Dec. 13, 2011], when it emerged he received an email that included a briefing indicating that the activity had not been confined to a single ‘rogue reporter,’ " the U.K. newspaper The Guardian reports.

Murdoch has insisted that he did not know until well into 2010 that there was more than one reporter involved in phone-hacking.

James Murdoch, 38, is the son of News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch. James runs the company’s operations in Europe. The phone-hacking scandal revolves around a now-closed News Corp. tabloid newspaper in the U.K. called The News of the World.

The story adds that Murdoch has written to members of Parliament "to say he had not properly read the June 7 2008 mail from News of the World editor Colin Myler which forwarded an account of the case being brought against the paper by the Professional Footballers’ Association boss Gordon Taylor. The email chain appears to contradict Murdoch’s insistence that he was not briefed in detail on the case which was later settled for [about $1.4 million].

"The forwarded note from the paper’s legal manager Tom Crone warned of a ‘nightmare scenario’ because Taylor had obtained firm evidence of the hacking of one of his colleague’s phones which involved at least one other News of the World journalist."

The article also notes that "Three days after Myler sent the note that Murdoch says he did not read in full, the News Corp boss met the editor and Crone on 10 June 2008 to agree to settle the case in secret. News Corp, however, continued to maintain publicly that hacking was confined to a single ‘rogue reporter’ until the end of 2010."

The story adds, "In a statement, Murdoch said: ‘I was sent the email [from Colin Myler] on a Saturday when I was not in the office. I replied two minutes later accepting a meeting and did not read the full email chain. As I have always said, I was not aware of evidence of widespread wrongdoing or the need for further investigation.’ "

To read the entire letter that Murdoch sent members of Parliament, please click here.

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