Another phone hacking denial from Rebekah Brooks- this over Blunkett’s affair
Day 58:
The Sun did not rely on phone hacking to establish the identity of Home Secretary David Blunkett’s lover, the Old Bailey heard today.
Kimberly Quinn was named by the redtop as being Mr Blunkett’s partner on Monday 16 April 2004, the day after its Sunday sister the News of the World broke the news of the affair between the Labour politician and the married woman.
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Second denial re Milly Dowler story from Rebekah Brooks
Day 57, Part 2:
Rebekah Brooks today denied ordering newspaper executives to remove a reference to a hacked voicemail from a story about Milly Dowler.
The News of the World changed a story on 13 April 2002 about a voicemail left for the missing 13-year-old after police questioned its veracity.
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Rebekah Brooks defence: I learned about the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone from The Guardian. Fascinating.
Day 57, Part 1:
Rebekah Brooks today denied any involvement in the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone. Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, Mrs Brooks said she had not known that the schoolgirl’s voicemail had been intercepted days after her disappearance in 2002.
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The raging fires in Bobtown, Pennsylvania- three days after the explosion. Pic courtesy; dvorak.org
A warning to Britain about the dangers of slip shod fracking operations is revealed today in an extra ordinary story published on the TUC’s Touchstone blog.
It discloses how a near disaster hit one hundred residents of a tiny Pennsylvania town where a fracking well exploded lnto a spectacular and deadly tower of flame, killing one person and burning for five days,
A missing worker (believed to be a contractor) from the Chevron Appalachia site has not been found and is presumed dead. Only a few charred human bones were recovered.The well pad has three natural gas wells. Nineteen workers were on the well pad during the explosion, a spokesman said.
Wild Well Control, an organization trained specifically to deal with natural gas explosions, was called to the site. Investigators finally gained access to inspect the well pad for the missing employee eight days after the blast when they were able to pull a charred crane off the well pad that was nearest to the still-leaking wells. The wells should finally be capped after a fires suppressant system was installed.
Chevron’s response to the disaster which terrified people living in Bobtown was believe or not to offer a free pizza voucher and a bottle of soda. Yes this is true, I am not joking.
The letter enclosing the free voucher says:”
“Chevron recognizes the effect this has had on the community. We are committed to taking action to safeguard our neighbors, our employees, our contractors and the environment.”
I don’t what crass overpaid public relations firm advised them to do this but it is the equivalent of saying to the local yokels let them eat cake. Given the gravity of the situation it is demeaning and insulting. I wonder if the dead man’s family will get a life supply of pizzas and sodas.
More worrying Chevron – which also facing protests about fracking in Romania where it is riding roughshod over protestors – is an active player in the UK.
To be fair it has a good record in the North Sea oil industry with interests in 10 oil and gas fields – and an excellent safety record according to its own website. But if it starts cashing in on the fracking boom – given the Coalition’s view that workplace safety is mainly just red tape – I for one would not like them in the vicinity. Still it might be boon for pizza delivery drivers – it gives a whole new meaning to the warning to beware of pizza vans.
Amazing how £92,000 a year is so much small beer – £1000 a week payments not big enough to bring to the attention of the editor.
Day 56, Part 1:
Rebekah Brooks did not know that Glenn Mulcaire was on a £92,000-a-year contract with the News of the World, she told the phone hacking trial today. The paper had an annual £30 million editorial budget when she was editor.
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Very interesting that Rebekah Brooks said she had never heard of Glenn Mulcaire during her editorship.
Day 55, Part 2:
Rebekah Brooks relied upon the News of the World’s managing editor Stuart Kuttner to oversee the paper’s multi-million pound budget, she told the hacking trial this afternoon.
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The feminist defence of Rebekah Brooks against misogynist males at the News of the World.
Rebekah Brooks battled her way through a high-spending, hyper-competitive and sometimes “misogynistic” world to climb to the top of tabloid journalism, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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This is an important blog and worth following. If you are either concerned or interested in the issues surrounding the treatment of child abuse survivors it provides a valuable insight. I cannot reveal the identity of the person who is behind it for legal reasons but I can assure anyone following my blog that the person knows what he is talking about.
The Police clearly have a difficult job in investigating allegations of historical abuse.
These people are specialists in this area, and spend much of their time wading through the filth of our society. Their focus is on apprehending criminals, but they are human beings, and generally trying to make the world a better place. The time spent working in this area is limited, mainly due to the huge personal impact on them. Spare a thought for the officers who pursue allegations, aware that there is insufficient support for victims, but who do their utmost to make the best of a bad situation. Like a tanker, they leave a huge wake, and they know this but try to control this as best they can.
The Police do not have access to proper support for victims – and they know this! They understand that this is a force-wide issue, and people within…
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Interesting memo.This seems to reveal the desperation Rebekah Brooks felt as her Empire at the News of the World crumbled after the Milly Dowler hacking disclosure by The Guardian.
Day 54, Part 2:
Rebekah Brooks wanted to blame News International’s former chairman Les Hinton and the News of the World’s editor Colin Myler for the phone hacking scandal, according to a document disclosed today.
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These are amazing emails released by the Crown prosecution Service today. First a resume of what Blair told her and then admission that the News of the World was looking to close!
Finally an extraordinary email suggesting that after the paper closed it should be blamed on the former chief e3xecutive Les Hinton and Colin Myler, then the editor of the News of the World. Extraordinary
Copyright Prixpics – used with kind permission
A clearer copy of email evidence submitted in the jury bundles on the last part of the prosecution case has been released by the CPS. The first email, from 11th of July 2011 shows an exchange between Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch, which starts with a discussion of the sales for the last edition on the News of the World.
James Murdoch replies, querying why Brooks would put such things on email. The Daily Telegraph had reported that day on the ‘smoking emails’ which caused the closure of the News of the World. It was also the day that The Times led on reports that the police wanted to interview Brooks.
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Westminster Confidential 