The News of the World had a "legendary safe" where "all sorts of stories were buried" about the rich and famous, the Old Bailey has heard.

Former News of the World reporter Dan Evans claimed at the phone-hacking trial on Thursday that the safe in the newspaper was where the top secrets were kept as a form of insurance.

"The editor's safe is legendary where the secrets of the great and the good are kept for a rainy day when they might provide leverage for the paper," Evans said.

He referred to the safe after being questioned about a claim he made earlier in the week in the hacking trial that he had been instructed to make a copy of a tape of an intimate message left by Sienna Miller and put it in a Jiffy bag.