Glenn Mulcaire, 40, who is accused of hacking phones and was jailed in in January 2007 for intercepting the phone calls of royal aides, has said that he is sorry.

Mulcaire affirmed that he did not intend to derail the police investigation. He hacked into the voice mail for the News of the World, said “I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset.

“I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But I didn’t understand that I had broken the law. What I did was for what I thought was the greater good. I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into crime,” he said.

The newspaper is now under investigation for the phone hacking scandal. The company came under severe criticism after revelation that a private investigator working for the News of the World hacked into the voicemail of a missing young girl from Surrey who was later found murdered. It is suspected that the investigator erased messages on her phone in order to receive more.

The News of the World, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, has said that it will take the "strongest possible action" if it is found that its journalist hacked into the phones.