British reporter pleads guilty to royal phone tapping

LONDON, Nov 29 (Reuters) A reporter for Britain's top-selling tabloid newspaper pleaded guilty today to plotting to tap the telephones of Britain's royal family.

News of the World royal correspondent Clive Goodman was facing charges at London's Old Bailey criminal court of unlawfully intercepting communications in the household of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles.

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who appeared alongside Goodman, admitted to the same charge as well as pleading guilty to a further five charges of unlawfully intercepting voicemail messages.

Goodman's lawyer said the former royal correspondent -- whose famous scoops have included ''Harry's Drugs Shame'' in 2002 when Prince Charles' son was revealed to have smoked cannabis -- was very sorry for his actions and wanted to apologise publicly.

Snooping on the royals has been a rich source of lucrative scoops for Britain's scandal-hungry tabloids in the past. In the early 1990s, their pages were plastered with transcripts of the ''Squidgygate'' and ''Camillagate'' tapes -- recordings of Charles and his then-wife Diana talking intimately to their lovers.

Diana was taped making kissing sounds with a lover who called her ''Squidgy''. Charles was taped telling his then mistress Camilla Parker Bowles -- now his wife the Duchess of Cornwall -- that he wanted to be reincarnated as her tampon.

Today's case was brought after police said they received complaints from three members of Charles' staff who suspected someone was listening to the voicemail on their mobile phones.

Goodman's lawyer John Kelsey-Fry told the court the journalist accepted that such tapping amounted to a ''gross invasion of privacy''.

''He therefore apologises unreservedly to the three members of the royal household staff concerned and their principals, Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles).'' Goodman and Mulcaire now face a possible jail term after the judge said ''all options are open'' in terms of sentencing. ''This is an extremely serious matter,'' he added.

The case is an embarrassing blow to Britain's most popular Sunday newspaper, which has a circulation of more than three million, and its owner Rupert Murdoch's News International.

REUTERS PDM VV1749