Andrew Coulson, editor of the News of the World, has resigned after his royals reporter and a private investigator were jailed for intercepting more than 600 messages for senior officials in the royal household.

Some excerpts from the Guardian story:

The ruse, which ended in (Clive) Goodman's "humiliation and disgrace", involved the casual breach of security arrangements put in place by the main mobile phone companies, yielding information that was then used to produce exclusive stories for the News of The World.

His lawyers told the court he became desperate for information because he was sidelined on the paper and felt his stellar career was on the wane. He paid the investigator Glenn Mulcaire £12,000 cash for his role in the eavesdropping - money that was then reclaimed from News International. But it also emerged that Mulcaire had a formal relationship with the newspaper and a lucrative contract worth more than £100,000 a year to provide "information and research". Mulcaire was jailed for a total of six months. ...

Passing sentence Mr Justice Gross said: "This was serious criminal conduct of which we must not become numbed. It is of the very first importance to the integrity of our public life that such intrusive, sustained and criminal conduct should be marked unambiguously by loss of liberty." He said members of the royal family hold a "unique position in the life of this country". The judge said the "intrinsically serious and unattractive nature" of the offence meant immediate custody was inevitable. Goodman stood impassively as the sentence was passed. Goodman, 49, of Putney, south London and Mulcaire, 36, of Cheam, Surrey, admitted conspiracy to intercept communications last November, avoiding the need for a trial.

The sentencing trained a harsh light on the practices and imperatives of some forms of red-top journalism.

Goodman, according to his barrister, John Kelsey-Fry QC, was a journalist of integrity and high professional reputation. "Goodman was the top royal reporter in the country," he said. "He was respected, rewarded and commended by his peers ... But by January 2005 the position was very different. His stories were not considered adequate by his superiors. He was demoted and sidelined and another younger reporter was appointed to follow the royal family. He was under intense pressure to produce and feared for his job."