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.
Day 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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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.
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
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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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!
Day 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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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.
The trial now moves to whether Rebekah Brooks was involved in concealing evidence to prevent the police investigating. Andy Coulson was excused a court appearance as he is not involved in these charges. The court also learnt about Charlie Brooks,Rebecca’s husband buying up surplus News International silverware used to wine and dine the great, the good and the not so good.
Day 34: The jury at the Old Bailey phone hacking trial yesterday heard evidence relating to the allegations of conspiracy to prevert the course of justice. Prosecution Counsel, Andrew Edis QC, told that jury that for the next two to three weeks they would hear evidence on Counts 6 and 7.
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Westminster Confidential 