Former news editor at Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct tabloid News of the World today admitted to hacking phones of celebrities like Jude Law and Paul McCartney while at the newspaper, becoming the eight person to be convicted in connection with the case.

Ian Edmondson, 45, is likely to receive a custodial sentence after pleading guilty at the Old Bailey court in London. Edmondson illegally intercepted the voicemails of two home secretaries, ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and actors Jude Law and Sienna Miller.

He had been in the dock at the start of the eight-month trial which ended with his former boss Andy Coulson being jailed for 18 months but was excused due to ill health in December last year. A hearing in July established that Edmondson was fit to continue.

He has now admitted conspiring with colleagues and private detective Glenn Mulcaire to intercept private voicemails between October 3, 2000 and August 9, 2006.

During the phone-hacking trial, it emerged Edmondson had also hacked the voice mails of Coulson and former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks.