Former Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd is angry over yesterday's reports that Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer, among others, had been bugged by the previous board.

Brian Tough, who was initially taken on as bodyguard to Douglas Hall, the son of the club's former owner Sir John Hall, sold his story to a Sunday paper and claimed to have tapped the home telephone of Keegan, who managed the club from 1992 until 1997, and also to have secretly filmed Shearer in August 1999, when the striker was in conflict with the then manager Ruud Gullit and there were doubts about his future at the club.

"This is James Bond stuff," Shepherd said. "I certainly didn't employ anyone in 007 activities at St James' Park. Mr Tough was never employed by me or the club."