Author Archives: davidhencke

News International security boss “burnt stuff” in back garden, jury told

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David Hencke comments: Given the timing, this is a fascinating insight. It also shows that Rebekah Brooks was not a loved figure by some in the outside world and more than worried about security.

By Martin Hickman

News International’s head of security Mark Hanna told a colleague he had “burnt stuff” in his back garden around the time of the closure of the News of the World, the hacking trial heard today.

Robert Hernandez, a security officer at News International’s HQ at Wapping, told the Old Bailey his boss made the remark in a pub after the final printing of the Sunday tabloid on 9 July 2011.

Mr Hernandez said: “He mentioned one time that he dug a hole in his garden and burnt stuff.”

With NI’s former chief executive Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie, Mr Hanna is accused of hiding evidence from Metropolitan Police detectives investigating phone hacking.

Mrs Brooks and her secretary, Cheryl Carter, are charged with another count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice by removing Mr Brooks’s notebooks from the company’s archives on 8 July 2011.

Giving evidence, Mr Hernandez said that shortly before midnight on Saturday 9 July he and Mr Hanna went for a drink at the Dickens Inn at St Katharine’s Dock near NI’s headquarters in Wapping.

Mr Hernandez told the jury: “Basically we were sitting down and having a drink and talking about the closure of the News of the World. Also he was just explaining how busy he was, how important his job was and how proud he was to work for the company.”

He added that Mr Hanna had explained how his job included ensuring Mrs Brooks had the correct security. About 10 to 15 minutes after discussing her but during a wider discussion about the NoW, Mr Hernandez said: “He mentioned one time that he dug a hole in his garden and burnt stuff.”

Mr Hernandez continued” “I asked him if it was papers. He didn’t reply…”

What happened then?, asked Andrew Edis QC, prosecuting.

Mr Hernandez said: “He just looked at me and didn’t reply and changed the conversation.”

In answer William Clegg QC, for Mr Hanna, Mr Hernandez said that he had drunk about four pints of ordinary-strength lager that night. Mr Hanna had had a bottle of wine.

It was a warm summer night, wasn’t it? Mr Clegg asked. Mr Hernandez agreed it had been.

Mr Clegg then asked: “Thinking back now, do you think it’s possible that the conversation about fire was mentioned in the context of: ‘I’d rather be having this drink in the context of a bonfire in my back garden?’”

Mr Hernandez, who is employed by a company called Advance Security and who still works at News International, replied: “No.”

Returning to the witness, Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, asked him: “What did he [Hanna] say?”

“He dug a hole in his garden and burnt stuff. I don’t know what it was. For all I know, it could have been bank statements,” Mr Hernandez replied.

During later testimony by another NI security guard, Glen Jagger, Mr Clegg asked the jury to look at a bundle of correspondence sent to the company at the time of the News of the World’s closure. There was, he said, “an extravagant barrage of insults.

Mr Jagger agreed it was part of Mr Hanna’s job to scrutinise whether such abusive letters represented a threat to the security of Mrs Brooks.

Mr Clegg continued: “There was quite a lot of paperwork Mr Hanna had to deal with in the build up to the closure of the NoW, and Mr Hanna was in the practice of taking work home with him, and sometimes that would include paperwork… and these letters are the sort of thing he would take home with him to read?”

Mr Jagger said: “To assess. Yes.”

Mrs Brooks, Mr Brooks, Mr Hanna and Mrs Carter deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The case continues.

This blog first appeared today on http://hackinginquiry.org/ website.

Support Peter Jukes to give a blow by blow account of the Murdoch hacking trial

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I don’t normally do special appeals on this website. But this an exception.

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Peter Jukes  has so far posted 100,000 tweets giving virtually live coverage of prosecution case against Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and other leading News International figures. To do this requires stamina, dedication, flair, accuracy and  real commitment. He also like the rest of us has to live. So he is asking for people to back his journalism by appealing for cash to allow him to finish the job – which could take up to June.

 I first came across Peter when I was in the middle of a long investigation into the ” cash for questions” scandal in the 1990s. At the time The Guardian paid my salary to do this. He is the sort of guy who should have support if we are going to keep real journalism going – and also be sure that the public can follow the trial in full – rather than relying on an occasional edited version appearing in the mainstream media.

This is his appeal . Back him.

Help fund the new campaign

First, thanks again. Back in October your support enabled me, a freelance journalist and author, to provide live coverage of the phone hacking trial till Christmas.

The Prosecution Case is now Closing. Early in February, the defence cases will start in the phone hacking trial.

This is always the most dramatic phase of any trial, when the defendants lay out their case, and are open to cross-examination.

Help me live tweet the hacking trial till its conclusion – expected in June. 

According to Jon Lippitt, who compiles and indexes my tweets in for future reference on my blog., I have now tweeted more than 100,000 words in three-quarters of a million keystrokes.

Phew! Ouch. RSI. So now I’m fundraising to finish the job.

In return for your support I promise to provide:

  • Live, independent and detailed coverage  – answerable to you
  • Daily updates indexed on my blog  with stories by Claire Pollard
  • All new features in an easy-to-read flipboard magazine, plus highlights from other coverage.
  • Eventually a complete searchable database of the main evidence of the trial .

I’ve taken on board many of your suggestions for special perks. Please support my new campaign at Indiegogo.

Phone Hacking Trial: Pornography in bag allegedly stashed in underground car park, trial hears – Martin Hickman

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Now just to add to the bizarre opera of Pizzagate, a lesbian porn magazine is found in one of the bags returned to Rebekah and Charlie Brooks Chelsea Harbour flat.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

Rebekah Brooks trial at the Old Bailey continuesDay 40: Pornography was in a bag allegedly stashed in an underground car park as part of a plot to frustrate detectives investigating phone hacking, Charlie Brooks’s lawyer told the phone hacking trial today.

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It’s official: News International security referred to the Charlie Brooks car park moment as ” Pizzagate”

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By Martin Hickman

A security boss contracted by News International to guard Rebekah Brooks described an alleged plot to hide evidence from police as “pizzagate,” the hacking trial heard today.

William Geddes, managing director of International Corporate Protection, asked colleague Dave Johnson: “Can you talk ref Pizzagate?”

Mr Geddes sent the message on Monday 18 July after police were called to Mrs Brooks’s flat complex following the discovery of a laptop bag in its basement car park.

A security guard working for News International had delivered some pizzas to Mrs Brooks’s husband Charlie at Chelsea Harbour as cover for returning the laptop bag, according to the Crown.

Asked by judge John Saunders to explain the reference to Pizzagate, Mr Geddes said: “Pizzagate was the term the team came up with for the fact that the errand they ran included not only returning a bag, but a pizza, so that’s what they called it.”

He explained that many of the security guards protecting Mrs Brooks were ex-military who used “lingo.”

Asked again by the judge to clarify Pizzagate, Mr Geddes went on: “My interpretation would be in the spirit of the general lingo used by my team members this was blowing an inconvenient situation into a bit of a drama.”

Mr Geddes explained that his company was contracted by NI’s security chief Mark Hanna in April 2011 to protect the chief executive, Mrs Brooks. ICP was contracted again in June 2011, when Mr Geddes subcontracted part of the job to another security firm, Corunna Solutions.

Mr Geddes told the court: “Our duties were to perform a discreet security coverage and to identify any surveillance against her [Mrs Brooks] that might be carried out by members of the media or hostile members of the public.”

He said the risk assessment suggested there might be an internal threat from “rogue elements” within News International, but did not elaborate.

Mrs Brooks, Mr Brooks and Mr Hanna deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The case continues.

This report was originally on the http://hackinginquiry.org website.

The ‘Pizzagate’ Tapes

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Great blog from a man everyone interested in the hacking trial should follow. @peterjukes gives a blow by blow account of the video evidence being used by the prosecution against Rebekah Brooks, Charlie Brooks and the head of security Mark Hanna. A must for aficionados who follow the inside story of the Murdoch Empire

peterjukes's avatarThe Criminal Media Nexus

The CPS today released video evidence from Count 7 in the phone hacking trial, of CCTV from the London residence of  Rebekah and Charlie Brooks at Thames Quay in Chelsea, for the 17th and 18th of July 2011 – starting the Sunday Brooks was arrested and the Chelsea property searched.

According to testimony from the MD of International Corporate Protection, William Geddes, his personal security operative ended up calling the whole affair ‘Pizzagate’.

About half an hour of video – which showed a static Black Audi in the underground car park –  has been edited out from the raw footage because it wasn’t shown to the jury. The remainder is the subject of evidence, contained in my tweets  from Court 12 at the end Monday January 13th, and much of the testimony today Tuesday January 14th.

I’ve included specific CCTV tweets below, but not related call data.

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Phone Hacking Trial: Potential evidence concealed in “pizza delivery” to Brooks’s flat, jury hears – Martin Hickman

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You could hardly make up make these accusations. First News International executives are shown to be paranoid about being bugged then the husband of Rebekah Brooks is caught on security cameras with a ” disappearing ” laptop and then there is an alleged plan to remove evidence under the guise of a pizza delivery. And these are our top news executives. Their defence is going to be very interesting!

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

CCTVDay 39, Part 1: Further CCTV footage of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks was shown to the jury at the phone hacking trial as the Crown made its case that they hid evidence from police. The closed circuit pictures captured the events in the basement car park of the Brooks’s London home on the day Mrs Brooks was arrested at Lewisham police station for suspected phone hacking.

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Caught on Camera: Charlie Brooks and a ” disappearing ” laptop -now you see it, now you don’t

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David Hencke comment: There is a delicious irony in this evidence that top News International executives accused of authorising hacking and payments to officials should be so paranoid  themselves about spying that are continually sweeping their offices and homes for bugs and end up being videoed on a private security camera in an underground car park.

 

By Martin Hickman

Rebekah Brooks’s husband was filmed by closed-circuit cameras going into the basement of an apartment block with an envelope and a laptop – and returning a few seconds later without either.

CCTV pictures of Charlie Brooks were shown to the jury at the phone hacking trial as evidence of an alleged plot by the Brooks’s to hide evidence from detectives investigating hacking at the News International.

The footage was shot at 12.14pm on 17 July 2011, 12 minutes after Mrs Brooks was arrested on suspicion of intercepting voicemails while at the News of the World.

According to the prosecution, Mrs Brooks, Mr Brooks and NI’s head of security, Mark Hanna, plotted together to pervert the course of justice between 14 July and 19 July 2011.

Mark Bryant-Heron, for the prosecution, gave the jury at the Old Bailey a timeline of the events of 17 July.

In the morning, he said, Mrs Brooks and a security guard had travelled by car from Enstone in Gloucestershire to Lewisham police station in London where she was due to be questioned. Another associate of hers followed in a second car.

At 12.02pm, shortly after she arrived at the police station, Mrs Brooks was arrested.

The court was then shown a short burst of CCTV footage from 11.52am showing Mr Brooks and his solicitor Angus McBride arriving at Chelsea Harbour in London where the Brooks’s had a flat.

In further CCTV pictures timed at 12.14pm – 12 minutes after the arrest of his wife – Mr Brooks was seen entering the basement car park of the complex.

After apparently loitering momentarily by a pillar, Mr Brooks walked around the pillar and toward the camera carrying a Jiffy bag and a laptop computer. He then disappeared from view.

A few seconds later, at 12.15pm, Mr Brooks walked back past the camera and towards the pillar empty-handed, without the bag or the laptop.

Closing his remarks for the afternoon, Mr Bryant-Heron said that the jury would see further CCTV footage tomorrow.

Mrs Brooks, Mr Brooks and Mr Hanna deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

This post originally appeared on http://hackinginquiry.org website last night.

Rebekah Brooks – code name ” Black Hawk” – had office, Chelsea flat and car swept for bugs, jury told

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By Martin Hickman

Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group was fearful of attack and surveillance from hostile forces in 2011, the hacking trial was told today.

The jury at the Old Bailey heard that in the year the News of the World closed, security chief Mark Hanna swept News International’s offices for listening devices, intercepted threatening letters to executives and monitored demonstrations outside its HQ in Wapping, east London.

By July 2011, said William Clegg, QC, representing Mr Hanna, NI’s group director of security had been working for three weeks without a single day’s break.

With Mrs Brooks and her husband Charlie, Mr Hanna is on trial accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice between 15-19 July 2011 by hiding evidence from the police inquiry into phone hacking.

Painting a picture of Mr Hanna’s broad responsibilities, Mr Clegg said they ranged from ensuring the safety of fire exits to thwarting commercial espionage.

Checking for bugs had become routine at News International’s HQ in Wapping, the lawyer told the court, given that newspapers were anxious to protect scoops and that the company was bidding to increase its shareholding in BSkyB.

He quoted an email sent by Mrs Brooks to general manager Will Lewis (and copied to Mr Hanna) on 25 January 2011 in which NI’s chief executive wrote: “Can we have my phones and office swept… thanks. discreetly.”

Mr Clegg, asking his first questions during the three-month trial, added that Mrs Brooks’s car and flat at Chelsea Harbour were also swept.

He asked Jane Viner, NI’s head of facilities: “A perfectly routine request for an executive at that time?”, to which Mrs Viner, Mr Hanna’s line manager, replied: “Yes.”

She agreed that it was Mr Hanna’s job to provide extra security to executives when necessary and that he had told her that he was intercepting suspicious letters addressed to executives.

Mr Clegg told the court that as part of his duties in 2011, Mr Hanna had employed a firm called International Corporate Protection to guard three executives: Mrs Brooks, Mr Lewis and Simon Greenberg. He added that Mrs Brooks was given the codename Black Hawk, while the other codenames were Kestrel and Sparrowhawk.  By mid-July, Mr Clegg said, Mr Hanna was working long days and taking work home in the evening.

As demonstrators converged sporadically on Thomas More Square, Wapping, after the disclosure that the News of the World had hacked Milly Dowler’s phone, Mr Hanna wrote to Mrs Viner on 14 July: “I am constantly reviewing the security arrangements.”

Mr Hanna went on: “We are intercepting some executive mail in relation to threatening correspondence. We have also received similar emails.”

Mr Hanna, whom the court was told was a veteran of the first Gulf War, explained that he had carried out an anti-surveillance “masking” of the perimeter of Thomas More Square.

Mrs Viner agreed with Mr Clegg that she had become concerned at his pastoral well-being, referring to it in a report she emailed to her boss, group finance director Susan Panuccio.

Mrs Viner, who previously said that Mr Hanna was trustworthy and hardworking, told the jury: “Yes, I was concerned about Mark’s welfare.”

The case, which is expected to last for another three months, continues.

This post appeared today on the http://hackinginquiry.org website.

Historic child sex abuse investigation now looks at an unsolved murder

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The Met Police paedophile unit is now  investigating the sadistic murder of a boy  possibly by one of the country’s most notorious paedophiles Sidney Cooke.

The allegations have surfaced as part of a renewed investigation into sex abuse parties held in the 1980s following the seizure of film  by the Met Police in their investigation into whether there was a  group of VIP paedophiles, including a former Cabinet minister, in the 1980s.

 Details are revealed by my colleague Mark Conrad on the Exaro website this weekend.

 He writes: “Police believe that some of the “sex parties” were organised by Sidney Cooke, the notorious paedophile who led the ring of four who were jailed for killing Jason Swift, a 14-year-old boy, in Hackney, east London after gang raping him in 1984.

In a chilling development, the detectives are investigating whether Cooke was involved in an incident in which a pre-teen boy was strangled to death during a sustained sexual attack at a basement flat in London.

Detectives have interviewed what they believe to be a witness to the murder.”

 Cooke is still serving a life sentence in jail for the sexual abuse of two young brothers in the 1970s and 1980s and is now aged 86, one of the growing numbers of elderly paedophiles in prison following successful police prosecutions.

In a quite separate and bizarre development allegations are being made that the security services and special branch may be involved in monitoring the revival of investigations into paedophile rings in the 1980s. People have turned up at  survivors and witnesses addresses saying they are journalists but leaving no cards or numbers. in the latest development reported in the Sunday People and Exaro News a person turned up at a key witness address saying he was from the Sunday People  They had not sent anyone there.

This is disturbing given the alleged record of the security services and special branch about Cyril Smith – who had been monitored by special branch – but no criminal action was taken against him. It could be that the security services are becoming the insecurity services as a result of these new investigations.

Phone Hacking Trial: Rebekah Brooks escorted out of building on day she resigned, hacking trial hears – Martin Hickman

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Today’s hearing included a dramatic description of how the powerful Rebekah Brooks was escorted out of News International HQ carrying only her handbag and a canvas bag. The locks were changed on here executive suite and she was not allowed to take anything but her personal possessions. She had become a ” person of interest” to the police and was arrested two days later.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

Rebekah BrooksDay 37, Part 1: One of Rebekah Brooks’s personal assistants had several meetings with a defendant in the hacking trial after giving a statement to police, the Old Bailey heard today.

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