Around eight to 10 years ago when I worked for another newspaper I received a red hot tip.

A well-known, married TV presenter was allegedly having an affair with an international Premiership footballer, then at the peak of his career.

It was not the sort of thing my paper would have been interested in so I rang someone I knew on the News of the World.

I can still recall the shiver that went down my spine at what happened next.

Within an hour he called me back to say both their mobile phones had been targeted to see whether there had been any “traffic” between them.

It turned out there hadn’t but he thanked me for the tip. As long as they were providing story ideas the bosses were happy but for me that was my first and last foray into Red Top journalism.

Wondering what on earth I had triggered I apologised for wasting his time and hung up.

So when I heard all those claims that phone-hacking had been restricted to a “rogue” reporter, Clivc Goodman, I was sceptical to say the least.

My brief insight suggested it was, as it later emerged, more of an activity going on on an industrial scale.

Now one of this country’s longest running trials has concluded with former NoW editor Andy Coulson and three newsdesk colleagues being described as having turned the paper into a “thoroughly criminal enterprise”.

On Monday Crown prosecutor Andrew Edis QC said the victims of the now-defunct Sunday tabloid “read like a Who’s Who of Britain in the first five years of this century.”

No one it seemed was safe. As well as actors, footballers, senior police officers and celebrities there were politicians and the Royal family in addition to people who just happened to be of interest to the paper for whatever reason.

The scale of the undertaking was truly breathtaking with some insiders claiming that its operation was more reminiscent “of the Stasi,” the secret police agency of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany), one of the most hated and feared institutions.

When the evidence began coming out some of those most embarrassed were the Prime Minister David Cameron whose closeness to Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the NoW, created much comment but who was cleared of all charges.

Humiliatingly, he had to admit his involvement in ‘Horsegate’. It had to be pulled out of him, almost word by word, or length by length if you prefer, but finally in the end in March 2012, he admitted riding the ageing police horse Raisa which had been loaned to Brooks by the Metropolitan Police.

Mr Cameron confessed that the horse was among those he rode while out with Mrs Brooks’s husband Charlie, who was also cleared of all charges in what has been dubbed the trial of the century.

What might have seemed a trivial incident received widespread publicity because the Camerons and Brooks are close Oxfordshire neighbours and part of the so-called Chipping Norton Set, a motley collection of people including the Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson.

The picture emerged of an elite set of journalists, politicians and PR folk who enjoyed cosy suppers and appeared to epitomise the all-too-close relationship between senior executives at News International and the Prime Minister.

And, of course, it didn’t help that Cameron went on, despite warnings by newspaper editors and senior politicians, to hire Coulson as his communications chief. Where that all leaves us now is unclear, given that there will be a fresh trial of Coulson and Goodman on the remaining charges.

One thing is certain though, it will be quite some time before politicians, journalists and police get quite so cosy again. But given the cyclical nature of these things I shouldn’t bet against it. And at the back of all this was the spider at the centre of the web of intrigue, the octogenarian Rupert Murdoch, who headed News International, now rebranded as News UK.

Given his media empire in this country includes The Sun, The Times and Sunday Times, senior members of both Labour and Conservative parties have been anxious to win his approval, (Lib Dems not thought powerful enough to be worth courting). Labour leader Ed Miliband has had his critics but his bravest moment came when he denounced the cosy pattern of alliances revealed.