13 Facts About Sean Hoare

Sean Matthew Hoare was a British entertainment journalist.

Sean Hoare contributed to articles on show business, from actors to reality television stars.

Sean Hoare played a central role in contributing to exposing the News International phone hacking scandal.

Sean Hoare was a reporter for The Sun before joining The Sunday People, under editor Neil Wallis.

Sean Hoare moved to the News of the World in June 2001, under editor Rebekah Brooks but was sacked in 2005 by then editor Andy Coulson for drink and drug problems.

Sean Hoare's health deteriorated to the point that the doctor examining his liver remarked that he "must be dead".

In 2001, Sean Hoare was awarded a Shafta Award for his scoop on David and Victoria Beckham's purchase of an island off the Essex coast; the story, which turned out to be fiction, won him the 20th anniversary "Shafta of Shaftas" in 2006.

Sean Hoare won another Shafta in 2002, two in 2003, and a lifetime achievement Shafta in 2004.

In September 2010 Scotland Yard reopened its 2006 phone-hacking case against News of the World and Andy Coulson, following a New York Times Magazine piece published that month in which Sean Hoare told reporters Don Van Natta, Jo Becker and Graham Bowley that Coulson had "actively encouraged" him to hack phones.

Sean Hoare met reporters from The Guardian, to confirm the details of the last New York Times reports.

Sean Hoare explained the appearance of severe injuries to the Guardian reporters, saying he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children's party.

Sean Hoare said he broke his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a pole from the marquee.

Sean Hoare failed to return phone calls to his home in the week after his dinner with New York Times reporters.