Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Magda Hassan]

The Met - Upsetting The Apple Cart

From my regular contributor.

In October 1999, John Stevens, then Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (MET), gave a high profile address at the 9th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Durban. His speech was entitled 'Integrity is not negotiable'. (here)

Of MET corruption he said,

Concerns were again raised about five years ago, when our criminal intelligence branch noted that several of our major crime operations had been compromised, and intelligence suggested that corruption had been a major factor. This gave an uncomfortable indication that organised crime had infiltrated our ranks.
We now realise that while we did deal with the "rotten apples", the approach did not destroy the tree from which they had been picked. This meant that a new batch of rotten apples could grow in another season.

Within a few months Stevens was appointed MET Commissioner, serving 2000-05. With his 'rotten apples' speech heralding then a new era of integrity, how did his tenure of leadership leave the MET five years later?

When his successor Ian Blair took over in Jan '06, this was the MET Management Board that he inherited from John Stevens:

It was reportedly a troubled Management Board - divisive, riven with rivalries, prone to press briefing against its own leader Commissioner Blair. Striking too is just how many of outgoing Commissioner Stevens' 11-strong Management Board have had their professional lives touched in some way by the subsequent Hackgate scandals - a total of seven (plus another senior officer about to join the Board)

IAN BLAIR
Blair was appointed Commissioner in Dec 05. Blair's term of office coincided with the original phone hacking investigation into Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, Operation Caryatid ('06-07). He resigned in 2008 as the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, openly expressed he had no confidence in Blair's Commissionership. Throughout, Blair is alleged to have been subject to adverse press criticism as a result of senior colleagues briefing against him.

DICK FEDORCIO
Fedoriwas questioned closely at the Leveson Inquiry about leaks to the press from the MET Management Board - he denied being the source of the leaks. Following Hackgate disclosues, Fedorcio resigned on the announcement that the Independent Police Complaints Commission were to instigate proceedings against him for gross misconduct. (here)

TIM GODWIN
When Temporary Commissioner in Jan '11, following significant new information provided by News Corp's Management and Standards Committee, Tim Godwin authorised the start of Operation Weeting. Its focus was to investigate allegations of widespread voicemail interceptions by the News of the World.

ANDY HAYMAN
2000-02 Hayman headed MET Anti-Corruption Command. 2005-07 he was Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations (ACSO) responsible for counter-terrorism, royalty protection and allied matters. Under that remit, Hayman was in overall command of the controversial Operation Caryatid (phone hacking). Hayman resigned in 2007. (see here)

STEPHEN HOUSE
House joined the MET as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner in 2001. In 2005, he was appointed to Assistant Commissioner, first in Central Operations and then heading Specialist Crime Directorate. In 2007 he took up post as Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police and, in October 2012, he was appointed as the first Chief Constable of Police Scotland. As such, House is ultimately responsible for Strathclyde Police's ongoing Operation Rubicon. It is the investigation into alleged perjury by News of the World staff regarding Tommy Sheridan, and the wider consideration of alleged hacking of Scots victims.

MARTIN TIPLADY
Tiplady was criticized by the Independent Police Complaints Commission following an IPCC investigation into the involvement of members of the MET Management Board in the employment of an immediate family member of a former News of the World executive. By the time of the IPCC Report in March '12 Martin Tiplady had resigned from the MET. The critical Report said, "Despite Mr Tiplady's claimed lack of direct involvement, the evidence suggests that the overall responsibility for this lack of adherence to policy rests with him. In a written response to the IPCC dated 6 February 2012 he accepted 'that it might be possible to criticise me for not ensuring that staff properly followed recruitment guidelines'. " (para 76 here)

[For absolute clarity, the Report made clear that there was no suggestion the relative of the News of the World executive in question, who assisted by meeting investigators and providing a statement, acted inappropriately in obtaining employment with the MET.]

PAUL STEPHENSON
Stephenson succeeded Ian Blair as MET Commissioner in 2008. In July '09, it was Commissioner Stephenson who tasked John Yates with establishing the facts surrounding the Guardian breaking the story of more widespread phone hacking than was evidenced by Operation Caryatid. Stephenson resigned in July '11 "as a consequence of the ongoing speculation and accusations relating to the Met's links with News International at a senior level "

By mid 2007 the MET Management Board looked like this:

JOHN YATES had by now joined the Management Board. Included in his portfolio was the Directorate of Professional Standards - motto 'Integrity is non-negotiable'.

[As an aside, Stephen Rimmer became Interim Chair of the Serious Organised Crime Agency in 2013, at the time when SOCA was embroiled in controversy over Operation Millipede.]

TWO REPORTS - Spring 2006

Just as Ian Blair started his Commissionership, two key reports were authored - one very likely reached the Commissioner's desk, the other certainly did not.

The first was authored by JOHN YATES. Dated 31 January '06, It ran to "53 pages and 316 paragraphs", and comprised an assessment for the re-opening of investigations into the murder of Daniel Morgan (see here). "The MPA [Yates] report, as it has been called, went on, amongst other things, to make numerous criticisms of the first investigation into the murder, to refer to the loss of exhibits and exhibit books since that investigation and to point to deficiencies in the evidence obtained." (pp36-37 here)

The second, dated April 2006, was submitted by an officer working on the phone-hacking enquiry, and it appears to have been withheld from Commissioner Blair. First reported by James Cusick and Cahil Milmo
in the Independent (Apr '12), they called it "a suppressed police-intelligence report which outlines allegations that a senior Met manager set out to cripple his own Commissioner...the report contains incendiary claims that the Met's eight-strong management board was 'compromised' effectively no longer secure with intelligence details from a reopened murder investigation being passed out of the Yard along with material reflecting a civil war inside the Met's upper echelons" (here)

The Evening Standard revisited the issue to add more detail (here):

The former commissioner first learned of the report when a whistleblower handed it to him in December 2011 at the height of the Leveson Inquiry. When he learned that Met anti-corruption officers had intelligence to suggest his senior team had been compromised six years earlier yet told him nothing about it, Lord Blair visited Scotland Yard... Lord Blair, who led the Met between 2005 and 2008, asked his former colleagues to investigate the allegations, find out who knew about the security breach and discover why he was not told.

This Evening Standard report by Tom Harper subsequently prompted questions to Sir Brian Leveson about his 'gagging' when he appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee in Oct '13. (here)

Leveson was clearly unable or unwilling to be drawn on the issue of the MET allegedly serving a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate.

Nevertheless, his responses to relevant questions do reward closer scrutiny, particularly in light of an intriguing intervention from Chair of the CMS Select Committee, John Whittingdale

Q829 Tracey Crouch: The Evening Standard reported that a former Metropolitan Police Commissioner handed a very serious report to your inquiry...which the Met then claimed a public interest immunity over. This then prevented you from referring to it in public or considering it for the conclusions of your report...My understanding is that there was an application for public interest immunity for a particular document... given to you by a former senior police officer alleging corruption... a certificate was issued, which was reported in the Evening Standard, and that, as a consequence of that certificate, you were unable to consider it as part of your recommendations on the relationship between the police and the press. Of course, that is a matter that is of great interest.
Sir Brian Leveson: "I am sorry, this question has - [long pause]
Tracey Crouch: Flummoxed?
Sir Brian Leveson: No, that is not - "
John Whittingdale (Chair) then intervened, "Sir Brian, I begin to get nervous when we talk about matters that should be or could be the subject of criminal action. I rely on you as rather better informed than me to warn us if we are straying into areas we should not.

Q833 "Tracey Crouch: I will curb my questions on that matter... Given my previous question and given ongoing concerns, not to mention the Daniel Morgan case that you reference once in your report, do you think the Met Police were, in fact, the right police force to conduct the current operations into journalist activities?"
Sir Brian Leveson: "I am not going to comment on that. I do say, which reflects a little bit on your last question, that there were some relationships between the press and very senior officers of the Metropolitan Police of which I was critical, of which you will be aware.
I did not go into too much detail, for reasons that the Chairman has just identified.
The circumstances surrounding the revisiting of Operation Caryatid in 2009 and 2010 are analysed - again I use the adjective tedious - at great length in my report, and the circumstances of the reopening of the investigation in January 2011 are also identified. We are still seeing the consequences flow through the system."

So it might be that the fallout from Hackgate is not over. John Stevens assertion in Durban in '99 that "while we did deal with the 'rotten apples' the approach did not destroy the tree from which they had been picked" may have been prescient. His legacy in the form of the MET Management Board he bequeathed to his successor might yet be tested against his yardstick of integrity being non-negotiable.
http://brown-moses-hackgate.blogspot.co....-cart.html

[David Guyatt]

So the Met "tree" is still producing rotten fruit...

More corrupt names to come, or will the PIIC do the trick and keep everything out of the public eye and allow things to return to normal?

[Peter Lemkin]

Ex-News Corp. Reporter Says He Was Part of Hacking Conspiracy'

By Jeremy Hodges / February 16th, 2014

• 
  

By Jeremy Hodges
Bloomberg News, January 29, 2014

A former reporter at the News of the World told a London court that he lied in previous cases as part of an "enormous conspiracy" to cover up phone hacking at the News Corp. (NWSA) tabloid.

The reporter, Dan Evans, said he invented terms such as "sticky keys" at meetings with News Corp. lawyers to explain how he had heard celebrities' voice-mail messages. Evans is under cross-examination after two days of testimony in the case over wrongdoing at News Corp. tabloids.
Andy Coulson, the 46-year-old former editor of the weekly newspaper, listened to a message left by Sienna Miller on actor Daniel Craig's phone, Evans testified yesterday. Coulson, who served as a media adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron after leaving the tabloid, is one of seven people on trial for offenses related to hacking, bribing public officials and destruction of evidence at the three-month old criminal trial.
"I did lie, yes," Evans said during questioning by Coulson's lawyer, Timothy Langdale. "I was part of the conspiracy. I'm ashamed to say that I did."
Evans backed away from his statement yesterday that Coulson called the tape of Miller "brilliant." Evans said today that the comment wasn't a direct quote, but instead an effort to reflect the atmosphere of the meeting.
Evans said today that he lied in a 2010 police statement about hacking the phone of designer Kelly Hoppen, Miller's step mother. He said that the "sticky keys" phrase was first offered in that case and he continued to use it in future investigations.

Braver Action'

"I bitterly regret that I didn't take a braver course of action at the time," Evans said.
Langdale said that Evans, who has pleaded guilty to phone hacking at Trinity Mirror Plc (TNI)'s Sunday Mirror, sought immunity in December 2011 in exchange for his testimony.
"Your target was to try and get away from any prosecution at all," Langdale said.
Evans responded that he was one person "caught between the prime minister," the tabloid world and "highly paid lawyers."
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch closed the News of the World in July 2011 after the discovery that the newspaper accessed the voice mails of a murdered schoolgirl years earlier.
Rebekah Brooks, another former editor of the tabloid and the former head of News Corp.'s U.K. unit, is also on trial in the case. All seven defendants have pleaded not guilty and are contesting the charges.
To contact the reporter on this story: Anthony Aarons in London at aaarons@bloomberg.net

[Magda Hassan]

Ex-News Corp. Reporter Says He Was Part of Hacking Conspiracy'

By Jeremy Hodges
Bloomberg News, January 29, 2014

A former reporter at the News of the World told a London court that he lied in previous cases as part of an "enormous conspiracy" to cover up phone hacking at the News Corp. (NWSA) tabloid.

Oh,my...clearly this man is just a lying conspiracy theorist to say he was involved in an enormous conspiracy. News Corp is a reputable business and Murdoch is a fine upstanding citizen.

[David Guyatt]

Brooks says she had "no recollection" of Prince William in a bikini.

As if...

Court judges and credulity (I'm being polite)

'I went from sweeping floors to paying for $250,000 exclusive on Hugh Grant's prostitute': Rebekah Brooks tells phone hacking trial of her rise through ranks

• Judge told jury to clear her 'because she has no case to answer on count'
  
• Former Sun editor still faces four other charges linked to hacking scandal
  
• The 45-year-old has started her defence after more than 3 months on trial
  
• Her QC told Old Bailey: 'Agendas are being pursued elsewhere' against her
  
• Giving evidence Brooks described going from tea girl to top of NotW
  
  
• At 27 she paid $250,000 for exclusive with Hugh Grant's LA prostitute
  
• Her NotW rivals cut her phone line and compiled 't**t' file on her mistakes
  
  

By MARTIN ROBINSON
PUBLISHED: 10:23, 20 February 2014 | UPDATED: 15:15, 20 February 2014

80 shares


Rebekah Brooks told the Old Bailey today how she went from a teenage tea girl 'sweeping floors' to securing a $250,000 News of the World exclusive with Hugh Grant's LA prostitute at 27.
The 45-year-old gave evidence for the first time at the phone hacking trial and described her meteoric rise to the very top of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
It came as she was cleared of illegally sanctioning a deal to secure a picture of the Duke of Cambridge in a bikini at a 007-themed party he attended with Kate Middleton in 2006.

Judge Justice Saunders told the jury to acquit her of one charge of misconduct in a public office because 'she has no case to answer'. She faces four further counts.
[B]SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO



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Old Bailey sketch: Rebekah Brooks in the dock today as she began giving her defence after being cleared of one charge of misconduct in public office

The court heard earlier the former Sun editor had agreed a payment for her tabloid's 'best contact at Sandhurst' to secure the image of William posing as a Bond girl in a green bikini.

More...

• Tony Blair's advice to best pal Rebekah: Tough up and take sleeping pills
  

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Cleared: Rebekah Brooks was acquitted of one charge shortly after she arrived at the Old Bailey to begin her defence today. She still faces four others

The embarrassing photo was taken at a 007-themed party held in the cricket pavilion of the military academy, but was never published.

Kate Middleton also attended the fancy-dress party and was said to have worn a wetsuit.
But uncertainty over where the picture came from means that the jury was asked to find her not guilty.

The judge told jurors: 'I have decided there is no case to answer for Mrs Brooks on count four, that's the charge of the picture of Prince William in a bikini acquired by the Sun newspaper.

'Whether or not there is a case to answer is for me to decide as a matter of law.

'I do not propose to tell you in any detail the reasons for my decision.

'But you may remember there was considerable uncertainty where the photo obtained by The Sun actually came from.'
On her first day in the stand Rebekah Brooks recalled her meteoric rise in the newspaper world from floor sweeper to editor.

The 45-year-old described how - through unerring enthusiasm and strong contacts with the likes of PR guru Max Clifford - she rose through the ranks of the News of the World, starting as features researcher in the 'pink parlour', to deputy editor of the newspaper by the age of 27.

The only child of a gardener father and personal assistant mother from Warrington, Cheshire, the former NotW and Sun editor told how she decided at the age of eight that she wanted to be a journalist.

Brooks recalled getting work experience at a local newspaper, the Warrington Guardian, at the age of 14.

While there, she said she had 'swept the floors and made the tea' until she got her first full-time job in journalism in 1988.

The court heard that she next went to work for the NotW's Sunday magazine, starting in April 1989 as a features researcher.

The court heard that when her then-editor moved to be deputy editor at the NotW newspaper in 1992, Brooks asked if she could move with her to work on the newspaper's features desk.

After becoming deputy features editor in March 1994, Brooks became features editor in June that year. And just over a year later, in September 1995, she became acting deputy editor.
Asked about major stories while she was features editor at the newspaper, Brooks described securing a £100,000 deal in 1995 with prostitute Divine Brown after actor Hugh Grant was caught with her.

But she said the newspaper ended up spending far more money, as they went to huge lengths to prevent rival publications getting to the prostitute.

Brooks said sje hired a plane to fly 'very smart' Brown and members of her family to 'the desert' - she thought Nevada - to stay in a resort to prevent other newspapers finding them.

Asked by her QC Jonathan Laidlaw how much the whole enterprise had cost, she said it could have amounted to as much as £250,000.


Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson arrive at the Old Bailey









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Change: Ms Brooks was acquitted of one charge today linked to allegations that she sanctioned an illegal payment for a picture of Prince William in a bikini

She also told jurors reporters slashed her phone lines and kept a file of her mistakes labelled 't**t' amid fierce rivalry at the News of the World.

She said the brutal competition between the news and features departments at the tabloid was well-known and even encouraged by the editors.

'There was probably a lot of old-school misogyny, added in to the competition,' she said.

'Competition between the two desks was engrained in News of the World history - people didn't like each other.'

HACKING TRIAL: FOUR REMAINING CHARGES BROOKS FACES

One count of conspiring to hack phones.

Two of perverting the course of justice
One of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office


After she landed a story on former cabinet minister Alan Clark while features editor, Brooks said she was the victim of sabotage.

'At the end of any news story, there was always an appeal to any reader - do you know anything more about this story, give us a call', she said.

'I came in on Sunday and checked and my phone lines had been cut. No one owned up to it, but I always suspected it was the news desk.'

Describing another incident, Brooks said: 'They compiled files on any perceived mistakes, and stupid stories I have done.

'The files - it is embarrassing to say - they were all called t**t 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I found that one day, it was a tough day.'

Brooks also told the jury how she was a founding member of Women in Journalism, but found her colleagues and rival male journalists then gave it the nickname 'whinge'.
She said the rivalry was even fiercer between the News of the World and The Sun, with almost no co-operation between them at all despite sharing offices.

She recalled The Sun frosted their windows to protect their stories when the News of the World journalists' route to the canteen was changed to go past the Sun desks.



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High riser: Rebekah Brooks went from a work experience girl in her teens to the top of the Murdoch empire within a few decades

At a previous hearing it was alleged Brooks approved payment for the picture on June 16, 2006, while she was editor of The Sun.

BROOKS' FIRST DAY IN THE DOCK

On starting out in journalism: 'I swept floors and probably made the tea.'
On rivalry at the News of the World: 'I came in on Sunday and checked and my phone lines had been cut. No one owned up to it, but I always suspected it was the news desk.'
On sexism in the newsroom: 'There was probably a lot of old-school misogyny'. Brooks was a founding member of Women in Journalism, but rivals gave it the nickname 'whinge', she said.

On her mistakes: 'As part of the internal competition there were compiled files of your perceived mistakes or stupid stories I'd done. I found mine one day and they were all called t**t. T**t 1, 2, 3 and so on.. It was a tough world.'
On her $250,000 Hugh Grant exclusive: 'We asked Divine Brown if she would move from her home to a different location. She (Ms Brown) was very smart, she wanted all her family relocated to this place in Nevada, we had to hire a plane'.

On backing New Labour in 1997: 'The Sun had supported the Tories for a long time and they supported Tony Blair in favour of John Major very early on. It was a big thing.'


She was accused of telling a reporter 'OK' when the proposition of buying the snap was put to her.

But during police questioning, Brooks said she could not remember a picture of Prince William in a bikini at all.

She told detectives: 'In relation to the Prince William story and photograph, I have been shown an online version of the story but I have no recollection of a photograph of Prince William in a swimsuit.'

In evidence, jurors saw paperwork from The Sun showing a £4,000 payment was made on June 16, 2006, with the reference: 'Prince William bikini exclusive'.

However, no photo ever made it into print in the tabloid. Nearly three months later, on September 9, 2006, a crude mock-up of the Prince's face on a man's bikini clad body was published with a story about the Sandhurst party.
Major Julia Parke-Robinson, a Sandhurst platoon commander, had been at the April 2006 party when Prince William, then known as Cadet Wales, arrived wearing the bikini top and a grass skirt.
She told the court William brought his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton to the party, which was used as a training exercise to assess cadets' organisation skills.

'I can remember Cadet Wales wearing a Bond girl style outfit, with a bikini top and grass skirt, as were a number of his friends', she said.

'I have no recollection of what Kate Middleton was wearing at the time.'

Quizzed on the colour of William's bikini, she said: 'I recall it was green.'


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Royal couple: The photo of Prince William in a bikini was said to have been taken at a James Bond-themed party in 2006. His wife was also there


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In the dock: Former NotW editor Andy Coulson arrives at court today and is also accused of series of charges linked to the hacking scandal

Prosecutors finished presenting their case yesterday, three-and-a-half months after the trial opened.
This gave Brooks the chance to start presenting her case.
Jonathan Laidlaw QC made an opening statement and said jurors might have found the trial hard to follow so far.

He told the court that 'on occasions absolutely critical information was overlooked or left out' by the prosecution.

Mr Laidlaw said: 'If there is a sense of confusion about the evidence and what it is said to relate to, that would be entirely understandable.'
He also told the jury it was not for Brooks to give evidence to 'make out her innocence', but that the prosecution must bear the burden of reaching a high standard of proof.
He also told them she should not be tried for being a tabloid editor, her politics or working for Rupert Murdoch, only the charges she faces.

'There are agendas as you can all see, being pursued elsewhere, so please just be careful and keep an open mind and stay focused upon what matters,' he said.
Mr Laidlaw added the jury should see the ex-tabloid editor 'as she is' and 'begin the process of working out whether there is any truth in any of the allegations made against her'.
Brooks and her former lover Andy Coulson, who succeeded her as editor of the now-defunct News of the World, are among those standing trial.
The pair deny charges that include an alleged conspiracy to hack the telephones of celebrities, royals and politicians, as well as authorising the payment of public officials for information.

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Conspiracy charges: Cheryl Carter, Rebekah Brooks' PA and the former head of security at News International, Mark Hanna, are accused of helping to cover up evidence of hacking



The court heard evidence yesterday that former prime minister Tony Blair apparently offered to be an 'unofficial adviser' to Brooks, days before she was arrested as part of the investigation in 2011.
Mr Blair also suggested she should set up an independent inquiry and publish a Hutton-style report' an apparent reference to the 2003 inquiry into the death of weapons inspector David Kelly.
He also told her to take sleeping pills and advised her to 'tough up', according to an email she sent to James Murdoch, apparently informing him of the hour-long conversation she had with the former Labour leader.
Brooks, 45; Coulson, 46; former NotW royal editor Clive Goodman, 56; Brooks's former personal assistant Cheryl Carter, 49; Brooks's racehorse trainer husband Charles Brooks, 50; head of security at News International Mark Hanna, 50; and ex-NotW managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73, deny all charges.


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Chain: The hacking trial was read this email from Brooks to James Murdoch, where she outlined an hour long conversation she had with the former prime minister

'I swept floors and made tea': How Rebekah Brooks rose from work experience girl to the top of the Murdoch empire

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In the witness box: Rebekah Brooks arrived at the Old Bailey to begin her defence after three-and-a-half months of trial

The Old Bailey heard from Rebekah Brooks for the first time today, who told jurors she knew as an eight-year-old she wanted to be a journalist.
Sitting in the witness box wearing a white cardigan over a blue dress with her red hair pinned back, Brooks told the jury: 'My grandmother wrote a poetry column for a local newspaper. The idea probably stemmed from her.'
She said she had 'swept the floors and made the tea' at the local newspaper. Brooks said she got her first full-time job in journalism in 1988, when she was around 20.
Brooks told the jury that her father was a gardener and her mother a personal assistant.
Her parents split up when she was aged 21 and her mother went to London where Brooks was then living. Her father is now dead.
She told her mother at the age of eight that she wanted to be a writer, Brooks said.
Brooks recalled getting work experience at a local newspaper, the Warrington Guardian, at the age of 14.
As Brooks described her early days in journalism, her husband and co-defendant Charlie Brooks sat with his left hand resting against the side of his head, smiling.
Mrs Brooks said The Post newspaper, where she got her first job, proved to be a 'short-lived' publication. But while there, she started to do research for senior journalists when they were going out on a story, such as checking cuttings, and said she was 'bit by bit allowed to write a paragraph'.
The court heard that she next went to work for the News of the World's Sunday magazine, starting in April 1989.

She later got her job as a features researcher and while working, Brooks took a course at the London College of Printing but she added: 'Learning on the job was more informative.'
Brooks told the court that she was made aware very early on of the importance of contacts because she met 'journalists who seemed to have contacts everywhere and sources everywhere'.



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Young: By 2000 Brooks, then Rebekah Wade, was editor of the News of the World after a series of promotions, where she was Britain's youngest tabloid editor at 31

The court heard that when her then-editor moved to be deputy editor at the News of the World newspaper, Brooks asked if she could move with her to work on the newspaper's features desk.

In September 1989 Brooks was promoted to feature writer for the magazine supplement.

Describing her work for the magazine, she said: 'What I ended up doing was interviewing people. The magazine, it was a mixture of celebrity interviews, or we did a lot of human interest stories, or a combination. If you could get a celebrity in a human interest story that was pretty good'.

In 1992 Brooks moved over to the features department for the main paper and became deputy features editor in 1994.

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Key contact: Brooks said publicist Max Clifford helped her with a string of exclusives for her at the News of the World

Features was responsible for 'the furniture' of the newspaper including motoring, travel, gardening and agony aunt. She described it as 'back of the book' content.

But news and features also competed for front page stories too, she said.
After becoming deputy features editor in March 1994, Brooks became features editor in June that year. Just over a year later, in September 1995, she became acting deputy editor of the NotW under then-editor Phil Hall.

Brooks told the court she used her contact with PR guru Max Clifford to get on as deputy editor of the newspaper despite her relative inexperience and age - she was just 27 at the time.

She said: 'I kept hold of running the (features) side of things. Particularly the NotW had a very strong relationship with someone called Max Clifford who basically brokered stories and I dealt with him a lot and stories around that, so by Christmas I passed my trial.'
Brooks told the court that a key story that she managed to secure for the tabloid was footballer Paul Gascoigne talking about domestic violence.

She had already interviewed him several times before 1994, but that year paid around £50,000 to £80,000 to secure the story about 'a sensitive subject'.

Brooks said: 'It was the fact that I got Paul to talk to me about such a sensitive subject. It set out the ground work for me doing that time and time again with other high-profile people who were having difficult circumstances.'
Asked about any personal attacks on her, Brooks said she once found a file compiled on her 'perceived mistakes or stupid stories', called 'T*** 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6'. 'It was a difficult world,' she told the jury.

The court heard that the first occasion Brooks edited the paper was on February 11, 1996 - after the bombing by the Provisional IRA at Canary Wharf - when editor Phil Hall was on holiday.

'It was the first time I had been left in charge, so a big, serious news story like that, I was obviously on edge and wanted to do it well. Despite my inexperience we managed to pull it together.'

Asked about former prime minister Tony Blair - who the court yesterday heard allegedly later offered to be an 'unofficial adviser' to Brooks days before she was arrested in 2011 - she said she first met him and the 'new Labour crew' in 1996 when she accompanied then-partner Ross Kemp to an education rally in 1996.


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Close: Then Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to Rebekah Brooks, then Wade, when she was editor of The Sun. He told her to stay calm and take sleeping pills

'I went with him and that's when I met, for the first time, the New Labour team,' she said, naming Mr Blair and wife Cherie, former spin doctor Alastair Campbell and partner Fiona Millar, as well as Peter Mandelson, describing them as 'the original sort of New Labour crew'.

Describing The Sun and News of the World's switch to support Mr Blair in 1997, she said: 'The Sun had supported the Tories for a long time and they supported Tony Blair in favour of John Major very early on.

'It was a big thing.'

$250,000 world exclusive for Hugh Grant's LA prostitute: Brooks used private jet and hid Divine Brown in the desert

Rebekah Brooks spent £250,000 hiding a prostitute caught performing a sex act on Hugh Grant to protect her exclusive story, the court heard today.

The then 27-year-old features editor of the New of the World relocated Divine Brown and her large family to an expensive house in the Nevada desert to stop others finding her.

Brooks paid Ms Brown £100,000 for her story, in July 1995, and spent another £150,000 on expenses, including chartering a jet and renting several houses.



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Exclusive: After Divine Brown was caught performing a sex act on Hugh Grant on Sunset Boulevard in 1995 Rebekah Brooks paid £250,000 to hide her and her family in the desert


'When the News of the World got there first, she agreed to do a deal with us there and then', she said.

'I think the deal with Divine Brown was around £100,000, give or take, directly to her.


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Impact: Brooks said she went to great lengths to secure the story linked to Hugh Grant (pictured with Liz Hurley, his partner at the time)

'There was a huge cost in, once we had found Divine Brown, there was an expectation that the Mail and the Sun wouldn't be far behind.

'We asked Divine Brown if she would move from her home to a different location.

'From memory, she must have taken quite a lot of her family with her.'

Brooks was features editor at the News of the World at the time, and had to explain the 'huge cost' to the editor and managing editor.

Ms Brown had been traced to her family home by one of the paper's reporters, a former private investigator, after her arrest with Mr Grant in Los Angeles.

'We flew them to a place in Nevada - the desert', she said, breaking into a slight laugh.

'It seems silly now, but it was really important.

'She (Ms Brown) was very smart, she wanted all her family relocated to this place in Nevada, we had to hire a plane.

'That was a huge cost because of the location we chose.'

Brooks said they were so worried about rivals finding them in the desert that the Brown family were relocated once again before the Sunday newspaper came out.

'It certainly blew the weekly spending limit - I think the total was about £250,000.

'It was probably one of the biggest expenses I had done, which is why I have a relatively clear memory of it.'

The trial continues.

Sabotage at News International: Rivals cut Brooks' phone and compiled 't**t' dossier to discredit her

The intense competition for exclusives at the News of the World was laid bare today as Rebekah Brooks said colleagues regularly tried to sabotage her stories and savage her reputation.

The 45-year-old said there was a 'deep competitiveness' at the tabloid, even between the news and features desks.

'Sometimes it was like they'd rather the Sun or Mirror had the story,' she said.

On one occasion she said the phone lines on her desk were cut.



+17

Stablemates: Rebekah Brooks said that the rivalry at News International's Wapping offices was so intense that staff would regularly sabotage eachother to get ahead

She said: 'No one owned up to it, but I always suspected it was the news desk.'

She added: 'As part of the internal competition there were compiled files of your perceived mistakes or stupid stories I'd done.

'I found mine one day and they were all called t**t. T**t 1, 2, 3 and so on.. It was a tough world.'

News International papers were like 'four separate kingdoms,' she added.

She said The Sun, News of The World, Times and Sunday Times, were so 'paranoid' about keeping their stories to themselves the print room would be 'locked down' so rival journalists couldn't steal their exclusives.

She told the Old Bailey: 'They were very separate. We had swipe cards and frosted windows.

'Management once planned a route into the canteen for the NoTW and The Sun had their windows frosted so the NoTW couldn't look in.

'It sounds paranoid, but the Sunday Times were just the same and kept themselves locked away like the rest of us.

'The print room would have to be locked down so journalists couldn't get through to the copy.

'It was four separate kingdoms really.'
[/B]

[David Guyatt]

I watched this guy give evidence to Leveson live and he was a strong and compelling witness. He was told to leave it for module 2 by Leveson.

It can only be a cover up about the depths of police corruption because the public trust in the police - already dwindling close to zero - would be utterly and irrevocably shattered.

Leveson inquiry: The spy, the judge and the cover-up'

Former intelligence officer alleges inquiry buried evidence of high-level corruption between MPs, press and police

TOM HARPER

INVESTIGATIONS REPORTER

Sunday 02 March 2014



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Sir Brian Leveson "pulled his punches" over evidence of "serious police corruption at the very highest level" because it was "too hot to handle", according to a complaint that has been lodged with the judicial watchdog by a News of the World hacking victim.

Ian Hurst, a former British Army intelligence officer whose family computer was infiltrated by private investigators working for the now defunct Sunday red-top, has written to the Ministry of Justice to complain that the senior judge "failed in his judicial duty" during his public inquiry into inappropriate relationships between the press, the police and politicians.
In his letter sent to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, the former spy said Sir Brian "covered up" the existence of a Scotland Yard intelligence report detailing a corrupt relationship between a very senior former police officer and a News of the World executive neither of whom have ever been charged with criminal offences.
Mr Hurst said his complaint was prompted by The Independent on Sunday revealing the milestone inquiry had ignored the classified document, which alleged the policeman obtained highly confidential information on decisions taken by Lord Blair when he was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in 2006, and passed it to theNOTW.
The final News of The WorldMr Hurst said: "I believe this complaint will demonstrate that Sir Brian pulled his punches with regards to evidence of serious police-press corruption at the very highest level evidence that was indisputably central to the terms of reference agreed with Prime Minister David Cameron." The former intelligence officer concludes that Sir Brian was "prepared to turn a blind eye to rampant allegations of corruption at the very centre of the nexus of corruption between the press and the police". Mr Hurst has also implored the watchdog to contact Lord Blair, whom he describes as "perhaps the most high-profile police victim of the dark forces the Leveson Inquiry was supposed to expose and eradicate".
The former Met chief is understood to be gravely concerned by the report, which shows some within Scotland Yard's anti-corruption command knew his team had been compromised in 2006 yet failed to warn him.
Mr Hurst claims he was also shown the intelligence report in June 2011 by a senior journalist from the BBC's Panorama, who had allegedly obtained it from police sources.
When he gave evidence at the Leveson inquiry, the 53-year-old alluded to the existence of the file and says Sir Brian "begged" him for a copy.
In November 2011, Mr Hurst told the inquiry: "The documentation that I've seen and others have seen, including Parliamentarians, clearly shows the corruptness which was allowed to continue and the culture was encouraged, which would not have allowed phone-hacking or computer-hacking to have taken place over such a sustained period if it didn't have the cover and the protection of very senior police officers."
According to transcripts, Sir Brian repeatedly asked Mr Hurst to give him details of the report, saying: "I need to know what I need to know."
Allegations: Sir Ian BlairIn his complaint, Mr Hurst said: "He told me not to bring it up at the time as he was very keen to include it in module two' [in Part One] of his inquiry in early 2012. Crucially, he quite explicitly said that is was not for Part Two, which is yet to take place." Part Two is due to look at tabloid phone hacking and whether police were complicit in the misconduct, but has been deferred until the end of criminal proceedings.
The former intelligence officer said he followed Sir Brian's instructions and prepared a second witness statement, which included details of the intelligence report. But in the intervening months, Sir Brian appeared to have a change of heart, and rejected Mr Hurst's new evidence.
It is understood that when Lord Blair gave evidence to the inquiry in March 2012, he was surprised not to be questioned about the intelligence report and its significance.
Mr Hurst told the Ministry of Justice: "It also seems that other former senior (and honest) police officers including ... Lord Blair are also aware of Sir Brian's failure to fulfil his judicial duty with regard to the suppression of this evidence."
He noted that Sir Brian refused to answer questions about the report when he appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in October. Tory MP Tracey Crouch asked the judge if he was "flummoxed".
In his complaint, Mr Hurst said: "The Met gathered this intelligence in 2006, it leaked out into the public domain in 2011 yet the [police officer] has still not been arrested and it is 2014. [The NOTW executive] has still not been charged with any offences, despite the Met holding prima facie evidence of his criminality dating back to at least 1998 which I have seen and can provide you with."
He added that inquiries should "proceed to recover all the available material of evidential value without fear, favour or outside influences".
Sir Brian did not respond to requests for comment.

[Peter Lemkin]

Princess Diana 'supplied News of the World with royal phone directory'

Paper's royal editor Clive Goodman says Prince of Wales's valet gave him two more books, Old Bailey told

• Lisa O'Carroll
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 13 March 2014 17.09 GMT
  

Princess Diana supplied the News of the World with an internal royal phone directory, Clive Goodman told the Old Bailey. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty

Princess Diana supplied the News of the World with an internal royal phone directory, it has been claimed at the Old Bailey.
A former senior valet to the Prince of Wales supplied two other books to the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman, the phone hacking trial jury heard on Thursday.
Goodman told the court that the Princess of Wales posted him one of the directories that were found in his house when it was searched by police following allegations of phone hacking in August 2006.
"It arrived in an envelope with my name on it," Goodman said, adding that it found its way to his desk at the News of the World.
Goodman, who has been charged with conspiring to cause misconduct in public office by paying a public official for the directories, said he had no warning that the directory was in the post. He has denied the charge.
"I received a call from the Princess of Wales later on that day asking me had I received it," he said of the book, which contained royal household numbers in 1992.
Goodman said she had sent him the directory because she wanted him to see the "scale of her husband's staff at his household" and the "scale of the forces ranged against her".
He added that "she felt she was in a very bitter situation at the time", as her marriage to Prince Charles had broken down.
Goodman said he got two further books from Kenneth Stronach, a former senior valet to Prince Charles, shortly before he left his private personal staff in 1995.
These books were dated 1988 and 1993 and among 15 books police found in Goodman's home in 2006.
Goodman told jurors that he had never paid a police officer, or royal protection officer for a story. He also told the court that he had never had a story from a police officer.
He also denied using the books to obtain mobile phone numbers for hacking, or for "blagging" obtaining personal information without an individual's permission and denied ever giving any information contained in the books for that purpose to anyone else.
The trial continues.

[David Guyatt]

Princess Diana 'supplied News of the World with royal phone directory'

Paper's royal editor Clive Goodman says Prince of Wales's valet gave him two more books, Old Bailey told

• Lisa O'Carroll
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 13 March 2014 17.09 GMT
  

Princess Diana supplied the News of the World with an internal royal phone directory, Clive Goodman told the Old Bailey. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty

Princess Diana supplied the News of the World with an internal royal phone directory, it has been claimed at the Old Bailey.
A former senior valet to the Prince of Wales supplied two other books to the paper's royal editor Clive Goodman, the phone hacking trial jury heard on Thursday.
Goodman told the court that the Princess of Wales posted him one of the directories that were found in his house when it was searched by police following allegations of phone hacking in August 2006.
"It arrived in an envelope with my name on it," Goodman said, adding that it found its way to his desk at the News of the World.
Goodman, who has been charged with conspiring to cause misconduct in public office by paying a public official for the directories, said he had no warning that the directory was in the post. He has denied the charge.
"I received a call from the Princess of Wales later on that day asking me had I received it," he said of the book, which contained royal household numbers in 1992.
Goodman said she had sent him the directory because she wanted him to see the "scale of her husband's staff at his household" and the "scale of the forces ranged against her".
He added that "she felt she was in a very bitter situation at the time", as her marriage to Prince Charles had broken down.
Goodman said he got two further books from Kenneth Stronach, a former senior valet to Prince Charles, shortly before he left his private personal staff in 1995.
These books were dated 1988 and 1993 and among 15 books police found in Goodman's home in 2006.
Goodman told jurors that he had never paid a police officer, or royal protection officer for a story. He also told the court that he had never had a story from a police officer.
He also denied using the books to obtain mobile phone numbers for hacking, or for "blagging" obtaining personal information without an individual's permission and denied ever giving any information contained in the books for that purpose to anyone else.
The trial continues.

Who even knows if it's true Pete? Princess Di can't now rebut anything Goodman might say can she.

[David Guyatt]

What's that guv, you kept breaking the law time and time again, you say? We're not interested in that.

News of the World royal editor: I hacked Kate Middleton 155 times

Clive Goodman tells phone-hacking trial he himself intercepted princes' voicemails, but has never been asked about it by police

• Lisa O'Carroll
  
• theguardian.com, Wednesday 14 May 2014 16.35 BST
  

Phone-hacking trial: the forrmer News of the World royal editor has said he hacked the phone of Kate Middleton, now the Duchess of Cambridge, 155 times. Photograph: Rex Features

Kate Middleton was hacked 155 times by a reporter on the News of the World who said he snooped on her voicemails on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the Old Bailey has heard.
Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, also revealed for the first time he directly hacked the phone of Prince William, adding that police had failed to ask him a single question about it in the eight years since he was arrested on related charges.
He told jurors he hacked Prince William 35 times, Prince Harry nine times and the Duchess of Cambridge 155 times.
Goodman said he had not been asked about this by the police or any other authority when he was arrested on related charges in 2006 or any time since.
"I've never been asked before. The Metropolitan police, Crown Prosecution Service did not ask me these questions in 2006 and 2007. I've never been asked by any inquiry any time about this," he said.
He first hacked Middleton on 21 December 2005, the jury heard, and continued to hack her on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. His first hack of Prince William was revealed to have taken place at the end of January 2006.
Goodman told jurors: "I'm really not the slightest bit proud of this. I don't want anyone to think I'm not ashamed."
He also hacked the phone of Kate Waddington, the personal assistant to Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, 160 times.
Goodman also said of Glenn Mulcaire, who was also arrested in 2006 for hacking members of the royal household: "Virtually every story in the paper was ground through the Glenn Mulcaire mill."
Under cross-examination by Timothy Langdale QC, who is acting for the paper's former editor Andy Coulson, Goodman told the jury that he was not on trial for hacking and the prosecution had told him he faced no further charges on this offence.
Turning to Langdale, he said: "Now that you are asking them [the questions], I'm quite happy to get them out there and get everything in the open."
He said he was being as "honest and open" as he could be on the subject. "My entire life has been exposed. I've never been asked these questions ... Anyone who wants to ask me questions, they will get straight answers as indeed you are getting today."
He told jurors that Middleton, who was dating Prince William, back in 2005 was a "figure of increasing importance around the royal family. There were discussions of her and Prince William marrying, moving in, settling down. She had started receiving royal status around the royal family."
Langdale put it to him that "one of the things you must have been worried about more than anything else in 2006" was that it would be discovered he was hacking Princes William and Harry and Kate Middleton.
He denied this and said his biggest fear was that he would have to carry the can for all the activities of Mulcaire who was arrested and jailed along with Goodman in January 2007 for hacking-related offences.
"I was terrified of the whole thing. I was more frightened of being blamed for Glenn Mulcaire's hacking," he said.
Jurors have previously heard that Kate Middleton and Prince Harry had been hacked. They have also seen emails relating to alleged hacks of Prince William when he was at Sandhurst in 2006, but Goodman's evidence on Wednesday is the first time it has been admitted.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have known each other since 2001 when they met at St Andrew's University and were exposed by the newspapers as a couple in 2004.
The trial has already heard that personal messages left by Prince William for Kate Middleton in 2006 in which he called her "babykins" were hacked by the News of the World.
Goodman was jailed in 2005 after admitting being involved in the hacking of three royal aides, Prince Charles's communication secretary Paddy Harverson, the prince's aide, Helen Asprey, and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, private secretary to Princes William and Harry.
He was back in the witness box after an eight-week absence due to illness to finish his evidence.
Because of the long lapse of time between the first part of his cross-examination, the judge opened proceedings by refreshing the jury's memory as to Goodman's previous evidence.
Jurors were reminded that Goodman had claimed that Coulson had told him to tell police he was acting as a "lone wolf" and that he had gone "off the reservation" when asked about his activities in 2006.
Coulson has been charged with one hacking conspiracy, a charge he denies.
The trial continues.

[David Guyatt]

A cynic might think that the prosecution case was designedly flawed to ensure it failed. That's what a cynic might think.

Everyone else thinks justice has been done and been seen to be done.

Which might well the the whole rationale for the show.

Meanwhile, Rupe Murdoch, who publicly and in front of hundreds of journalists -- witnesses in other words - and who was secretly recorded on tape by one jour no present -- openly admitted he knew that payments were made to the police and that these payments have always happened. Despite this public admission of conspiracy to pervert justice, Rupe doesn't even get his collar felt.

Oh well, just another show trial that worked its way to its designer conclusion.

Phone Hacking: CPS says the trial was about 'exploring a culture of invading privacy'

Prosecutors and police defend the decision to bring the hacking trial as cleared defendant describes it as an 'assault on the free press'


Cleared Stuart Kuttner has described the prosecution as an assault on the free press Photo: Central News

By Martin Evans, Crime Correspondent

7:46PM BST 25 Jun 2014


The Crown Prosecution Service has defended its decision to bring the phone hacking trial to court claiming it was required in order to "explore a culture of invading privacy".

Despite unprecedented resources being thrown at the three year investigation and eight month trial, five of the seven defendants, including former News of the World and Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, were cleared of all charges.

But prosecutors and the police have insisted it was right to bring the case, which is estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £45 million.

Greg McGill, a senior lawyer with the CPS, said the decision to pursue the case all the way had been entirely justified.

He said: "This case was not about whether phone hacking took place or whether public officials were paid for information; there are a significant number of recent convictions which show that both did happen.

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"This has been a lengthy and complex trial which was required to explore a culture of invading privacy."
But privacy experts have said a criminal trial was not the appropriate forum to explore such issues.
Niri Shan, head of media law at Taylor Wessing, said: "When the CPS is deciding whether to bring criminal charges, public opinion will play some part, but essentially a trial should be about the evidence against the defendants.
"A criminal trial is not really the forum to explore the issue of the invasion of privacy. We have already had the Leveson inquiry to do that and there have been a large number of civil actions going through the courts that have also fulfilled that role."

Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, was the only defendant to be found guilty at the trial, however five people associated with the defunct tabloid admitted phone hacking charges before the trial began.
The jury failed to reach verdicts on four charges relating to Coulson and former News of the World royal editor, Clive Goodman.
The CPS will announce on Monday whether they will seek a retrial.
But despite the large number of acquittals in the trial, Scotland Yard insisted the investigation one of the biggest in its history had been justified and was not simply an attack on press freedom.
The Met admitted ploughing "unprecedented resources" into probing allegations of wrongdoing at News International and other newspapers, but said it was vital establish whether any offences had been committed.
Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who oversaw Operation Weeting, insisted that detectives had followed the evidence without fear or favour.
She said: "This has been a complex and challenging investigation which has culminated in a trial lasting almost eight months. Five people have already pleaded guilty to serious criminal offences before this trial.

"Throughout the investigation we have done our best to follow the evidence, without fear or favour. We were conscious of the sensitivities and legal complexities of investigating a national newspaper containing confidential journalistic material.
"This investigation has never been about an attack on press freedom but one to establish whether any criminal offences had been committed, to establish who was responsible for committing them and to bring them to justice. The victims deserved no less.
"Along with the verdicts, I hope this will give some comfort to the many victims that justice has been served.
"Those found not guilty have been exonerated after a thorough police investigation and fair trial. It was right that the issues were aired publicly in a court of law."

But Stuart Kuttner, the former News of the World managing editor, who was one of those cleared, said he believed the entire case had been based on undermining a free press.
He told Channel 4 News: "I think the state, through its legal arms, to the Crown Prosecution Service, the Metropolitan Police Force, chose to take on the press.
"Obviously I deeply, personally deeply resent that. I resent it for my colleagues, and I am inclined to use the term stitch up, because that's at heart what I believe it was.
"I'm not attributing blame to any particular organisation or any particular arm of the state, but when you take on people like us where there is no evidence, no substantive evidence whatsoever, then you have to ask what lies behind it.
"And what lies behind it was in my view was an absolute unmerited assault on a free press."