Prince Harry asked royal aide for help with Sandhurst essay, phone hacking trial told The jury have heard that Goodman and Mulcaire were later convicted of phone hacking. But Mr Goodman, 56, is now facing separate charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office which he denies. It is claimed that the then editor Andy Coulson was also aware of what was happening. Mr Edis said the story was one of a number of articles cited by Mr Goodman as he tried to justify paying Mulcaire a weekly retainer. The jury heard that the Prince, who is now an Army officer, had to write an essay about the SAS siege of the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980 as part of his studies. Mr Edis then showed them a transcript of the message in which Prince Harry said: "Just wondered if you, bizarre question, have you any information at all or you know where to get information from about the siege of the Iranian Embassy because I need to write an essay quite quickly on that. I just need some information. I have got most of the stuff but if you have got any extra information or websites that you know please, please, please email it to me. Earlier the jury heard that Mr Goodman admitted that he was breaking the law when he asked Andy Coulson to approve a corrupt payment to a policeman. He emailed the tabloid's editor asking him to approve a £1,000 cash payment to the officer for a royal telephone directory. But he openly acknowledged that he and Mr Coulson would face "criminal charges" if the transaction was discovered, the court heard. The jury heard that in an email to Mr Coulson in January 2003 Mr Goodman wrote: "Andy - one of our royal policemen (St James Palace) has obtained the brand new green book, the telephone directory with all the home numbers of the royal family and their household staff. Incredibly useful and he'll be extremely handy in the [X] affair tale. The standard price is £1,000. So far so good. But I had a heck of a time getting cash creds signed off by Stuart [Kuttner, the managing editor] earlier this week to pay a Kensington Palace copper for a page lead and an exec [executive] on another paper for a carvery item. I think that we should have the book and the goodwill that goes with it but I am keen to avoid Round Two with the Man Ed [managing editor]. I'm not criticising Stuart at all, but these people will not be paid in anything other than cash because if they're discovered selling stuff to us they end up on criminal charges, as could we. Mr Edis said two versions of the email had been discovered, the second of which was missing the final two sentences. He told the jury: "Did Mr Coulson get the whole of that, or did he just get this bit? We would invite you to find that he got the whole of the e-mail, but even if he only got this bit, without its reference to criminal charges at the end, it's quite enough, isn't it? Mr Coulson replied to Mr Goodman: "This is fine. Didn't I sign off on purchase of green book quite recently tho? About half an hour later, Mr Goodman wrote a further email to Mr Kuttner, which said: "Stuart - I've left a deliberately cryptic credit payment form in your in tray. If you have a second or two I'll explain the details. Mr Edis said the payment form had been discovered, and simply described the reason for the money being handed over as "royal research project." Mr Coulson, 45, who later became David Cameron's director of communications, denies charges related to phone hacking and to alleged corrupt payments.