Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Magda Hassan]

Hubby Charlie will lose his lucrative training license if convicted of course.

Phone hacking: Rebekah Brooks will be charged with perverting course of justice

Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, will be charged over the alleged


The former chief executive of News International, who resigned in July, was arrested in March along with her husband Charlie Brooks and five others.
They were questioned as part of part of Operation Sacha, an investigation into alleged attempts to destroy material relating to Scotland Yard's inquiries into phone-hacking, computer hacking and corrupt payments to public officials.
Last month, officers from the Metropolitan Police passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service on the seven people arrested.
All but the seventh were to be charged.
The group was questioned after it was claimed News International implemented an "email deletion policy" in response to legal action launched by phone hacking victims against News Group Newspapers, which published the News of the World.
Last year, police examined a computer, paperwork and a mobile phone found in a bag in a bin near the Brooks' London home the day after Mrs Brooks had been arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and of corrupting police officers.
Mrs Brooks's spokesman said at the time that the bag and its contents belonged to Charlie Brooks, a columnist for The Daily Telegraph, and were nothing to do with Mrs Brooks or the phone-hacking case.
The discovery of the bag in a bin was put down by Mr Brooks to a mix-up over where the bag should be dropped off after he lent it to a friend. Mr Brooks said he had contacted police in an attempt to reclaim the bag after a cleaner found it and gave it to a security guard, who passed it to police.
Mr and Mrs Brooks and the five others were told of the CPS's decision moments before it was publicly announced.
Anyone charged with the offence can only be tried in a crown court, where the maximum sentence for those found guilty of perverting the course of justice is life imprisonment.
So far, no-one has been charged since Scotland Yard launched a fresh investigation into phone-hacking in January last year.
More than 40 people remain on bail after being questioned by detectives.
Mrs Brooks, 43, appeared at the Leveson inquiry on Friday but she could not be questioned about the allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World because of the criminal inquiry.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/p...stice.html

And from the Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, is to be charged with perverting the course of justice, the Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday.She faces three charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice including the alleged removal of seven cases of material from the archive of News International and the alleged concealment of documents and computers from officers investigating phone hacking.Brooks, who was arrested in March by Scotland Yard police officers investigating phone hacking, is the first person to face charges in the major criminal investigation into hacking and allegations of bribing public officials.Her husband, Charlie Brooks, the racehorse trainer and friend of the prime minister, is also to be charged, the CPS announced.Rebekah Brooks's former PA Cheryl Carter, News International's head of security, Mark Hanna, News International chauffeur Paul Edwards and security consultant Daryl Jorsling have also been told they will face charges, the CPS confirmed. One other person who was arrested, who has not been named, will not face charges.In a statement minutes before the official announcement from the CPS, Mr and Mrs Brooks said: "We deplore this weak and unjust decision. After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS we will respond later today after our return from the police station."Brooks and her husband were told the decision on Tuesday morning when they returned to the police station to answer bail along with the five other suspects.The charges are as follows: That Rebekah Brooks between 6 July and 19 July 2011 conspired with Charles Brooks, Cheryl Carter, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards, Daryl Jorsling and persons unknown to conceal material from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service. That Rebekah Brooks and Cheryl Carter between 6 July and 9 July 2011 conspired together permanently to remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International. That Rebekah Brooks, Charles Brooks, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards and Daryl Jorsling conspired together and with persons unknown, between 15 July and 19 July 2011, to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service.All six will appear before Westminster magistrates court on a date to be determined.Alison Levitt QC, the principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions, announced the decision in a televised statement read out at CPS headquarters. She said: "This statement is made in the interests of transparency and accountability to explain the decisions reached in respect of allegations that Rebekah Brooks conspired with her husband, Charles Brooks, and others to pervert the course of justice."She said prosecutors had applied the tests required and found that there was sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution was required in the public interest.The charges are the first since Operation Weeting began. Scotland Yard has budgeted for three linked inquiries to run to 2015 at a cost of more than £40m. The CPS is still studying four more files which have been passed to it by detectives investigating phone hacking, leaks and alleged bribes to the police.