He was told that the paper had employed a private detective, who in turn employed a "specialist hacker" who had worked with MrHurst in the intelligence services for three years.
MrHurst said his computer had been hacked by a "Trojan horse" - a programme in which harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless data and allows a third party access to email exchanges.
Mr. Hurst, in his suit, cites a seven-page fax sent by Mr. Rees to Mr. Marunchak in August 2006 that contained an extract from at least one email sent by Mr. Hurst to an agent he'd dealt with in Northern Ireland.
While Mr. Hurst didn't identify those behind the hacking during the hearing Monday, he does name them in a suit he filed in August against News Group Newspapers Ltd.