The former legal manager of The Times, Alastair Brett, has conceded that statements submitted to the High Court in a 2009 case involving email hacking were "not entirely accurate".

Brett, who gave evidence at the Leveson Inquiry into media standards yesterday (15 March), told Lord Justice Leveson that witness statements presented to the High Court in the case "did not give the full story".

The 2009 case saw Richard Horton, the policeman and anonymous author of the 'Nightjack' blog, attempt to obtain an injunction to prevent former Times reporter Patrick Foster identifying him in the newspaper. Mr Justice Eady ruled in favour of Foster, with Horton represented by Olswang litigation partner Dan Tench and Matrix Chambers' Hugh Tomlinson QC.

Yesterday Brett acknowledged that the statements provided at the time stating Foster had discovered Horton's identity using legitimate means did not give the "full story" and that he was trying to prevent a criminal prosecution being brought against Foster.

The hearing saw Brett come under intense scrutiny from Leveson, who, in response to Brett's assertion that Leveson was being "fantastically precise" concerning the 2009 witness statements, said: "I am being precise because this is a statement being submitted to a court, Mr Brett. Would you not want me to be precise?"

Leveson later added: "I am sure you did not condone what [Foster had] done. What I'm actually probing is how the relationship between the in-house lawyer acting for a newspaper and conscious of the different way stories can emerge, this, as you knew, through an illegal hack, then manifests itself in your being open and frank with everybody.

"It goes back to the question which I've already used today. The press rightly hold all of us to account; who is holding the press to account?"

A News International spokesperson said: "The testimony by The Times's former lawyer Alastair Brett was a painful reminder of an occasion when The Times's conduct failed to meet the high standards expected of this newspaper.

"As has been previously stated, the handling of the Nightjack case was deeply unsatisfactory. News International has changed governance and compliance procedures, including formalised guidance to the in-house legal team, to ensure that rigorous internal processes are adhered to in future."

Taylor Hampton Solicitors' Mark Lewis, who is currently acting for Horton, said: "What this demonstrates is that these journalistic practices cannot be shown to be limited to any one newspaper or newspaper group and what we are seeing is that there are wider ramifications than first appeared obvious.

"It also calls into question the sense of in-house lawyers acting in litigation. It is not that many years ago that lawyers of companies were not allowed to conduct litigation in order to ensure that there was detachment. Lord Justice Leveson will now need to revisit this issue."

Brett left The Times in 2010.

The news comes after News International's longstanding legal manager Tom Crone left the company last summer amid the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.