So Rebekah Brooks did know 18 months before it became public that Clive Goodman was no rogue reporter and was prepared to offer a deal to Max Clifford to save News International’s reputation.
Day 61, Part 1:
News International’s chief executive Rebekah Brooks knew that the company’s lone “rogue reporter” defence against phone hacking was “shaky” a year and a half before it changed its public position, the Old Bailey heard today.
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A good comprehensive guide to what will happen next in the phone hacking trial – and also a heads up on two new trials fixed for later this year.
The defence case in the phone hacking trial will begin on Wednesday 19 February 2014, which is week 14 of the trial. Each of defendants presents his or her case in the order that their names are on the indictment: Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Clive Goodman, Cheryl Carter, Mark Hanna and finally Charlie Brooks.
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Remember according to CPS files released at the trial hacker Glenn Mulcaire made £1m from News International over the years. This is some of his work from 11,000 pages of notes.
Day 51: Glenn Mulcaire carried out only a dozen hacks or attempted phone hacks during Rebekah Brooks’s editorship of the News of the World, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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This evidence adds to Jude Law’s claims of phone hacking and alleges Andy Coulson knew about it . It come after the previous revelation that the News of the World also paid a close relative of Jude Law to tell them of his love woes. The fact that ten other journos are said by Dan Evans to know abut hacking is also fascinating – but they cannot be named for legal reasons.
Day 47: Phone hacking supergrass Dan Evans played a recording of a hacked message to Andy Coulson while he was editing the News of the World, the Old Bailey heard today. Evans told the phone hacking trial that after he heard Sienna Miller declaring her love to James Bond actor Daniel Craig, Mr Coulson was “really animated”.
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The evidence disclosed today seems to fit in with a general paranoid view of the world – that a genuine Nick Davies scoop must be the work of a Guardian, BBC and old Labour.Also note the irony in the second part of the tale that Andy Coulson was complaining about the Guardian getting tip offs from the Met Police. The on going trial restricts me from saying more.
Day 44, Part 1: Rebekah Brooks appeared to believe that reports on the hacking of Milly Dowler were part of a co-ordinated exercise against News International by the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and members of the Labour Party.
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The 5.0am police raid on the Brooks family home has always been a very sore point for News International. The leaked recording of Rupert Murdoch’s talk to arrested journalists on the ExaroNews website recorded the anger felt by Murdoch personally over the police tactics. Now it turns out the computers found in Rebekah Brooks’ office were not used by her.
Day 43: Computers seized during a police search of Rebekah Brooks’s office at News International did not appear to have been used by her, the phone hacking trial heard today.
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Police tactics in both searching Rebekah Brooks office and home are under fire at today’s hearing – particularly the 5.0 am raid on the home of the Brooks family in Oxfordshire which mysteriously appeared on Sky News just after 6.0am
Day 42: Police searches of Rebekah and Charlie Brooks’s homes in London and Oxfordshire came under scrutiny at the phone hacking trial today. At one stage, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, for Mrs Brooks, suggested that detectives were practising “Carry On” style policing.
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Pedigree Kune Kune pigs and a litter. pic credit: dalehouse farm.com
The Crown Prosecution Service have released today the contents found in the brown briefcase owned by Charlie Brooks examined by the Met police.
The full content list can be read on Peter Jukes blog whom I am indebted for quick publication tonight.
Followers will remember this was the bag recovered by a cleaner and handed over to the police. It was also the subject of allegations by the prosecution that it was part of a conspiracy to try to get rid of evidence once his wife, Rebekah Brooks, alleged code name Black Hawk for security reasons, had been arrested.
The police have already released a video taken from the 24 hour security cameras at Chelsea Harbour, the London home of the Brooks family. Today they added some pictures.
Altogether there are seven DVDs- ranging from titles like Bride of Sin to Instant Lesbian and Lesbian Psychodramas. Other contents include the Kunekune Pig Society newsletter,a pair of Falke Shelina 12 tights and more mundane items like pens,a conker, homeopathic medicine and chequebooks from top banker William Hoare & Co.
The court was also told yesterday that Mr Books may have threatened to sue the manager of Chelsea Harbour for handing over the bag to the police after he couldn’t retrieve it from the porters lodge.
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.
I don’t normally do special appeals on this website. But this an exception.
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.
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:
I’ve taken on board many of your suggestions for special perks. Please support my new campaign at Indiegogo.
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