Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Jan Klimkowski]

Every crime family knows it's gotta keep the consigliere happy and contented, even in faux exile:

Rebekah Brooks took £10.8m compensation from News Corp

Accounts at Rupert Murdoch's firm reveal payoff to former chief executive of News International

Dan Sabbagh and Lisa O'Carroll
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 12 December 2012 14.13 GMT

Rebekah Brooks
Rebekah Brooks's payout is higher than the £7m previously thought to have been given. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Rebekah Brooks walked away with £10.8m from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation as compensation after she resigned from her position as chief executive of News International at the height of the phone-hacking scandal, UK accounts published by News Corp show.

The total is higher than the £7m that Brooks, who also counted David Cameron and Tony Blair as friends, had previously been thought to have taken home and is far in excess of the £3.5m payout believed to have been given at the time of her departure from News International in July 2011.

Accounts for NI Group Ltd, the UK holding company for News Corp's Sun and Times titles plus its HarperCollins British book business, and other related companies disclosed the payment the first time the company has confirmed how much Brooks received ahead of its expected public market listing in 2012.

The accounts say that an unnamed director received £10.852m as "compensation for loss of office". That money includes "various ongoing benefits" including the funding for the costs of an office in Marylebone for two years, and for the cost of providing her some staff for the same period of time.

It is understood that person is Brooks. A close ally of Rupert Murdoch, who once described her as his "larrikin" mischievous youth she edited the News of the World and the Sun in succession before taking over as chief executive of News International in the summer of 2009.

Brooks will also have "all legal and other professional costs" relating to the various court cases she is fighting paid for by News Corp "until those investigations are concluded" and the company noted that it expected further costs to be incurred, costs not factored in the accounts for the year to 1 July 2012.

The former chief executive is facing three sets of charges in relation to alleged criminality at the News of the World and News International. She has been accused of conspiring with her husband, Charlie, and others to pervert the course of justice and frustrate an investigation by the Metropolitan police into the publisher.

She is also facing two charges in relation to conspiring to intercept the voicemails of individuals including those Milly Dowler. She is also facing a charge in relation to corrupt payments allegedly made to a former Ministry of Defence official for stories, alongside the Sun's former chief reporter John Kay.

The accounts did not say if there was any clawback arrangement to reclaim any money should Brooks be found guilty of a criminal offence relating to her employment. But on the last occasion when reports of the size of her severance circulated, News International sources indicated that money would have to be paid back if a court returned a guilty verdict.

Overall, NI Group, reported a loss of £189.4m after tax although the deficit at Britain's largest newspaper group stemmed largely from £250m worth of charges relating to the closure of the News of the World and legal bills relating to phone hacking and other police investigations.

The company ran up legal bills of £140.9m, redundancy and restructuring costs, relating mainly to the closure of the News of the World, of £29.8m. The £150m sale of its historic Wapping print plant and headquarters also prompted a loss on the disposal of £59m.