Phone hacking scandal deepens

[Magda Hassan]

UK phone-hacking trial: Rebekah Brooks's assistant 'offered Australia move for hiding News International boxes'

By Europe correspondent Barbara Miller, wires
Updated 3 hours 40 minutes ago
Photo: Cheryl Carter worked as Rebekah Brooks's personal assistant for 16 years. (AFP: Will Oliver, file photo)
Related Story: Brooks 'hatched plot' to cover up phone hacking, court hears
Map: England

The UK trial into alleged phone hacking at the now defunct News of the World (NotW) newspaper has heard allegations an employee was offered a move to Australia as a reward for concealing evidence.
Cheryl Carter, a former personal assistant to then-NotW editor Rebekah Brooks, faced accusations she was to be rewarded for removing boxes of Ms Brooks's notes shortly before the paper was shut down, the Old Bailey in London heard.
Carter's lawyer told the court that police suggested to his client that she was promised a job at a Murdoch-owned paper in Australia in return.
But her son told the court that the family had planned to move to Australia long before the phone-hacking scandal erupted, and had had visas from 2007.
They went ahead with the move in early 2012, but had to abandon the project after Carter was arrested.
In a recorded interview with police, played to the jury, Carter told officers she took boxes from News International's archives at the height of the scandal because it was convenient, and not to hide them.
She said archivists asked her to remove seven boxes marked as notebooks belonging to Brooks months earlier, but she decided to get them when Brooks was on holiday on July 8, 2011.
This was the day after it was announced that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid was to be shut down amid anger at allegations its staff had been involved in phone hacking.
Carter and Brooks, the former boss of Mr Murdoch's British newspaper arm News International, are charged with perverting the course of justice.
Brooks is also accused of conspiracy to hack phones and authorising illegal payments to public officials, charges she denies.

Boxes were removed 'as archive was downsizing'

Andy Coulson, a former NotW editor, and four others are also on trial over similar accusations, which they deny.
Jurors heard that Carter had asked the company's archivist, Nick Mays, to get the boxes from storage on July 8.
The boxes, placed in the archive in 2009, were marked as containing Brooks's notebooks from 1995 to 2007, during which time she had been editor of both the NotW and Murdoch's daily Sun tabloid.
Carter told police Mr May asked her to remove material from the archive because it was downsizing.
She said she had decided to deal with the boxes that week in July because Brooks was on a "boot camp" holiday, where she would be at home with a personal trainer.
Carter, who worked as Brooks's assistant for 16 years, arranged for her son Nick and Brooks's driver to help take the boxes from the archives. Her son then took them back to Brooks's house.
She said the seven boxes mainly contained Brooks's belongings. There were just three notebooks, a diary, and photographs belonging to Brooks, which she said she returned to the company's offices.
"I threw away the rest of the stuff," she said.
In the interview detectives read out a statement from Mr Mays in which he said he had not asked Carter to remove any material from the archive.
The trial continues.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-08/re...ns/5189732

[David Guyatt]

UK phone-hacking trial: Rebekah Brooks's assistant 'offered Australia move for hiding News International boxes'

By Europe correspondent Barbara Miller, wires
Updated 3 hours 40 minutes ago
Photo: Cheryl Carter worked as Rebekah Brooks's personal assistant for 16 years. (AFP: Will Oliver, file photo)
Related Story: Brooks 'hatched plot' to cover up phone hacking, court hears
Map: England

The UK trial into alleged phone hacking at the now defunct News of the World (NotW) newspaper has heard allegations an employee was offered a move to Australia as a reward for concealing evidence.
Cheryl Carter, a former personal assistant to then-NotW editor Rebekah Brooks, faced accusations she was to be rewarded for removing boxes of Ms Brooks's notes shortly before the paper was shut down, the Old Bailey in London heard.
Carter's lawyer told the court that police suggested to his client that she was promised a job at a Murdoch-owned paper in Australia in return.
But her son told the court that the family had planned to move to Australia long before the phone-hacking scandal erupted, and had had visas from 2007.
They went ahead with the move in early 2012, but had to abandon the project after Carter was arrested.
In a recorded interview with police, played to the jury, Carter told officers she took boxes from News International's archives at the height of the scandal because it was convenient, and not to hide them.
She said archivists asked her to remove seven boxes marked as notebooks belonging to Brooks months earlier, but she decided to get them when Brooks was on holiday on July 8, 2011.
This was the day after it was announced that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid was to be shut down amid anger at allegations its staff had been involved in phone hacking.
Carter and Brooks, the former boss of Mr Murdoch's British newspaper arm News International, are charged with perverting the course of justice.
Brooks is also accused of conspiracy to hack phones and authorising illegal payments to public officials, charges she denies.
Boxes were removed 'as archive was downsizing'

Andy Coulson, a former NotW editor, and four others are also on trial over similar accusations, which they deny.
Jurors heard that Carter had asked the company's archivist, Nick Mays, to get the boxes from storage on July 8.
The boxes, placed in the archive in 2009, were marked as containing Brooks's notebooks from 1995 to 2007, during which time she had been editor of both the NotW and Murdoch's daily Sun tabloid.
Carter told police Mr May asked her to remove material from the archive because it was downsizing.
She said she had decided to deal with the boxes that week in July because Brooks was on a "boot camp" holiday, where she would be at home with a personal trainer.
Carter, who worked as Brooks's assistant for 16 years, arranged for her son Nick and Brooks's driver to help take the boxes from the archives. Her son then took them back to Brooks's house.
She said the seven boxes mainly contained Brooks's belongings. There were just three notebooks, a diary, and photographs belonging to Brooks, which she said she returned to the company's offices.
"I threw away the rest of the stuff," she said.
In the interview detectives read out a statement from Mr Mays in which he said he had not asked Carter to remove any material from the archive.
The trial continues.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-08/re...ns/5189732

If the reason for removing the 7 boxes of notebooks was to downsize the archive, then it's a pretty desultory method of achieving that aim. Seven boxes in the scheme of things is simply a mote of dust compared to what the archive must have contained. Ergo, it's a ridiculous assertion.

The sense I get from following this trial is that the prosecuting silks aren't doing a very commendable job on the accused. Perhaps that's their brief?

[David Guyatt]

This, I think, is going to hurt Brooks and her husband, but the prosecution cannot show that the material put into the bin area, was actually retrieved, or, indeed, what that material is. It's all circumstantial. But the later texts messages help to shape the story.

Hacking trial: Jury sees CCTV footage of a "complicated and risky plan" to keep evidence out of police hands

JAMES CUSICK

POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Tuesday 14 January 2014



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CCTV footage of a "complicated and risky plan" involving the husband of Rebekah Brooks and News International security men allegedly trying to ensure that material was kept out of the reach of police, has been shown to the phone hacking trial at the Old Bailey.

The lengthy TV footage was captured by cameras at the reception, main entrance and underground car park areas at the prestigious Chelsea Harbour home of the former News International chief executive and her husband Charlie Brooks.
The plan was allegedly executed on 17 July, 2011, the day Mrs Brooks was arrested and cautioned at Lewisham police station, and continued into the following day, the court was told
Both Mr and Mrs Brooks and News International's former head of security, Mark Hanna, were in the dock as the CCTV from 2011 weekend was played to the court.
A brief clip shown to the court on Monday saw Mr Brooks entering the underground car park clutching a Jiffy bag and, the prosecution claim, a laptop computer. He walks off-camera to a bin area, and then re-appears without the bag or the computer.
Further clips were shown today of material later being retrieved from the bin area by Mr Hanna.
Using the CCTV recordings, phone records and cellphone location technology, it is claimed that Mr Hanna left the riverside apartments and was driven to News International's dockland's offices by another member of the security team, Lee Sandell.
The prosecution case alleges that Mrs Brooks' arrest had been anticipated and that the material behind the bins had been taken from the Brooks' flat because the couple knew the police were likely to mount a search operation. It is also alleged that other material was brought to London from the Brooks' country house in Oxfordshire for the same reason.
The court then saw CCTV recording of Scotland Yard officers arriving to search the Brooks' home. Mr Brooks' lawyer, Angus McBride, is shown giving the officers access to the Chelsea Harbour complex.
Seven officers were later seen on the CCTV footage carrying what was said to be electronic equipment and large boxes following the flat search.
Brooks footage: Caught on camera
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During the crown opening it was claimed that once the police had left Chelsea and it was "safe", it was decided to try and bring the bags from Wapping back to Chelsea Harbour.
After 9.30pm another member of the NI security team, Daryl Jorsling, is shown in the CCTV footage arriving in the Chelsea Harbour underground carpark.
Mark Bryant-Heron, counsel for the prosecution, said the TV record showed Mr Jorsling taking a large dark bag from the boot of his car, walking to the same bin area, and returning empty handed.
Later a man identified as "Mr Perkins" took two pizzas from the bin area. It was alleged in the crown opening that the pizza delivery was a ruse to allow Mr Brooks to re-enter the underground car park with a believable excuse.
After using the pizza delivery as part of the alleged deception, coded text messages of congratulations were sent.
The prosecution claims that Mr Jorsling sent a message to a senior member of the security team, David Johnson. Referencing the WWII espionage film Where Eagles Dare, the text said "Broadsword calling Danny Boy. Pizza delivered and the chicken is in the pot."
The reply from Mr Johnson allegedly read: "Ha! Fucking amateurs. We should have done a DLB [dead letter box] or brush contact on the riverside! Cheers mate, log in the hors ad "pizza delivery".
CCTV from the following day, played to the court, showed a cleaner at Chelsea Harbour driving a small tractor and hitching bins from the underground carpark together. The jury was told the cleaner, named as Mr Nascimento, found the black bag that had been hidden behind the bins, informed his boss, and that the police were later called.
Mr Nascimento will be giving evidence for the prosecution later in the trial.
Mr and Mrs Brooks, and Mr Hanna, deny charges against them of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Mrs Brooks denies all other charges against her, including conspiring to illegally hack phones and bribing public officials.
The trial continues.

[David Guyatt]

Shock horror, toothpaste found in black bin sacks.

No one seems to be talking about what was one the laptops, tablets though?

Phone-hacking trial jury told of porn videos and computers in bags

Prosecutors tell phone-hacking trial Rebekah and Charlie Brooks plotted with security adviser Mark Hanna to conceal items

• Nick Davies
  
• The Guardian, Monday 20 January 2014 20.37 GMT
  

Mark Hanna at the phone-hacking trial at the Old Bailey Photograph: Mark Thomas/REX

Two bags that were allegedly hidden by Charlie Brooks to frustrate a police search contained two laptop computers, a tablet, an iPod, a mobile phone, a dictation machine and seven pornographic DVDs, an Old Bailey jury has heard.
Prosecutors have told the phone-hacking trial that Rebekah and Charlie Brooks plotted with their security adviser, Mark Hanna, to conceal items from police and then arranged for some "safe" material to be returned behind a rubbish bin in the car park of their London flat, where it was found by a cleaner and retrieved by detectives. All three deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
The jury was given a detailed inventory of the contents of two bags the crown say were found tied up in a black bin-liner in the car park on 18 July 2011, the day after police arrested Rebekah Brooks and searched her homes in London and Oxfordshire.
A brown briefcase contained electronic equipment including a Sony Vaio laptop and a mobile phone, and items ranging from a Wimbledon tennis programme to the newsletter of the British Kunekune Pig Society, toothpaste and a conker. There was also a magazine titled Lesbian Lovers and the seven pornographic DVDs with titles that included Instant Lesbian, Lesbian Psychodrama 2 and 3 and Where the Boys Are 17.
A black nylon bag with a World Economic Forum logo contained an Apple laptop, an iPad, and paperwork that included 19 unopened letters which had been addressed to the Brookses' country home, Jubilee Barn, and to the neighbouring Castle Barn, the home of Charlie Brooks's mother.
Neil Perkins, a porter from the block of flats, in Chelsea Harbour, told the jury that on the morning of 18 July he had come across a group of men searching around rubbish bins in the basement.
He said Charlie Brooks had become angry when he was told that two bags had been handed to police: "He said 'Oh, I'll sue them.'"
DC Alan Pritchard said on the following day he had supervised a specialist search team who had sifted through rubbish in a compactor in search of the bin liner in which the two bags had allegedly been concealed. This had been "not particularly pleasant", he said, and he had left it to the search team to complete the job.
When police specialists studied the bin liner that was retrieved, they found there were three liners that had been knotted and sealed with clear tape.
A fingerprint analyst, Kevin Young, said one carried the fingerprints of Daryl Jorsling, a security man, who, the jury have been told, was responsible for leaving the material behind the bins. The two others carried the fingerprints of Mark Hanna.
Earlier, one of Hanna's security staff, Robert Hernandez, told the jury that on Saturday 9 July, as the last edition of the News of the World was being produced, he had gone drinking with Hanna in the Dickens pub near the newspaper's office in Wapping. He said that after discussing Rebekah Brooks, Hanna told him that at some unspecified time he had dug a hole in his garden and "burned stuff" in it.
"I asked him if it was papers, and he did not reply. He just looked at me and didn't reply and just changed the conversation."
The jury also heard how in the week before Rebekah Brooks was arrested, she and other executives had been sent 'hate mail'. A sample which was read to the court was addressed to "the entire stinking crew of News International", called them "a bunch of self-serving hypocritical liars" adding that rotting in hell was too good a punishment for them. "Be certain that the universal law of karma will exact its revenge on each and every one of you. Have a nice day."
The trial continues.

[Magda Hassan]

Shock horror, toothpaste found in bald bin sacks.

No one seems to be talking about what was one the laptops, tablets though?

Phone-hacking trial jury told of porn videos and computers in bags

Yes, not very illuminating is it? I would like to know what was on the computer files. I wonder who is on the porn DVDs as well? Maybe more in the line of Mosley and others?

[David Guyatt]

Carney switches Bank of England focus to conduct risks

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has warned senior bankers that conduct costs related to past misbehaviour have become the most pressing issue for the industry

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has privately warned bankers that conduct costs are the biggest problem facing the industry Photo: Rex Features







By Harry Wilson, Banking Editor

8:00PM GMT 26 Jan 2014

64 Comments


Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, has told a group of senior bankers that dealing with the legacy of past wrongdoing is becoming the most pressing issue for the industry.

Mr Carney is understood to have discussed the growing problem of conduct risks with Douglas Flint, chairman of HSBC, Peter Sands, chief executive of Standard Chartered, and Deutsche co-chief executive Anshu Jain, in a private session at the World Economic Forum.

It followed a lunch at the Davos event at which the Governor warned that financial institutions must not see fines for misconduct as "a cost of doing business" and said only "exemplary behaviour" would restore trust in the industry.

"While regulators will fix the mechanics of benchmarks in markets ranging from Libor to FX [foreign exchange], only private individuals and institutions can reform the behaviour that has made such changes necessary," said Mr Carney at the lunch hosted by the CBI.

"Changes to the structure of compensation will better align the incentives of bank staff and their shareholders, but not every risk can be anticipated," he added.

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At a series of private meetings, Mr Carney is understood to have repeated this message to industry executives amid fears over the rising cost of regulatory fines.
Over the past 12 months, major banks have paid out tens of billions of pounds in fines and compensation for their past wrongdoing, such as manipulating benchmark global interest rates, selling toxic mortgage-backed securities and mis-selling overly complicated financial products to business customers.
Senior figures at the Bank of England have become concerned at the increasing cost of these penalties and dealing with conduct problems has replaced raising new capital as the main focus of the authorities.
Research by the London School of Economics found that between them 10 of the world's largest banks, including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, have paid out about £143bn in "conduct costs" since 2008, equivalent to five years of dividend payments to share-holders.
Analysts at UBS estimate that the banking industry could still be facing further costs of between £30bn and £42bn, with new fines for Libor, as well as investigations under way into the alleged rigging of global foreign exchange markets. These costs exclude potential civil lawsuits connected to banks' misconduct.
Barclays is facing in April what is seen as a test case over its involvement in attempts to manipulate Libor brought by care home operator Guardian Care Homes. The company claims the bank mis-sold it a series of derivatives linked to interest rates. Barclays is defending the case and has said the claim is without merit.
RBS is defending a £4bn claim from investors over a £12bn rights issue in 2008, with shareholders, including several institutional funds, claiming the lender did not provide them with important information on the deterioration in its financial performance.

.

[Magda Hassan]

::orly:: I don't think this is what you intended David?

[David Guyatt]

::orly:: I don't think this is what you intended David?

Oh dear. ::

[David Guyatt]

A blackmail safe?

ews of the World had a 'legendary safe' where 'stories were buried'

Former reporter Dan Evans tells Old Bailey hacking trial that top secrets were kept as a form of insurance

• Lisa O'Carroll
  
• theguardian.com, Thursday 30 January 2014 17.38 GMT
  

Journalist Dan Evans told the Old Bailey that the News of the World had a 'legendary safe'. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA

The News of the World had a "legendary safe" where "all sorts of stories were buried" about the rich and famous, the Old Bailey has heard.
Former News of the World reporter Dan Evans claimed at the phone-hacking trial on Thursday that the safe in the newspaper was where the top secrets were kept as a form of insurance.
"The editor's safe is legendary where the secrets of the great and the good are kept for a rainy day when they might provide leverage for the paper," Evans said.
He referred to the safe after being questioned about a claim he made earlier in the week in the hacking trial that he had been instructed to make a copy of a tape of an intimate message left by Sienna Miller and put it in a Jiffy bag.
Timothy Langdale QC, counsel for former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, put it to Evans that there was no safe in Coulson's office. "This is another example of story-telling, of fiction, by you," Langdale added.
Evans responded that there was a safe in another former colleague's office if it was not physically in the editor's office.
Langdale challenged Evans's claim made earlier this week that Coulson had instructed Evans to make a dummy copy of the Miller tape, stick it in a Jiffy bag and send it to the paper's courier office, who would then send it back up to the office as part of an attempt to conceal its true provenance.
"There is not a word of truth in that is there?" Langdale said.
"Again, I didn't see you there [in the office on the day] Sir, " Evans replied.
Coulson's barrister went on to check if Evans was still claiming that he played the tape in an open plan office, even if this meant others could witness the editor listening to an illegally obtained voice mail.
Evans said he would not go as far as to say there was a code of "Omerta" at the office. It was "certainly understood, this was illegal, this was dodgy stuff we are doing and we are all doing it together".
"It's a relatively safe kind of closed circuit kind of place," he added.
Evans described how he tried to destroy any trace of the tape being put into the envelope. "I probably gave it a rub on my shirt to take any prints off."
It was put to him that he had told the police he had picked the jiffy up with a hanky. "Whatever," said Evans. "Hanky, rub a shirt, toilet roll."
Langdale asked Evans to review his call data from the News of the World office phones, which showed his history of hacking at his desk.
This showed he had hacked Jade Goody's boyfriend's phone at 10.47am on the same day he claimed to have played Coulson the Miller tape.
"This is your big day. You come in wagging your tail with this big story. What are you doing hacking Jeff Brazier? This has nothing to do with Sienna Miller, Jude Law, and Daniel Craig," Langdale said.
Evans replied: "I was just doing my job."
"There was nothing in existence to show you or anybody else doing anything to do with Sienna Miller" until Friday 30 September, Langdale added, three days after he said he had played the tape of her private message to Craig.
Evans responded: "I can only tell you how I remember it."
The former News of the World reporter, who has pleaded guilty to two charges related to hacking, was then asked about call data records which showed he hacked Craig's phone before and after he had said he doorstepped the actor that Friday.
Evans says: "At the time there was a sense that what we did at NoW as untouchable. There was an arrogance at the paper."
Coulson has denied being involved in a conspiracy to hack phones. The trial continues.

[Magda Hassan]

Fascinating. What an interesting word to use 'Omerta'. Quite appropriate for the Murdoch crime family's very productive dirt unit. Clearly Murdoch has not been paying enough to all his staff. Look forward to more from Danny Boy and about the safe.....and the information that they don't have and don't use against politians and the powerful.

::rofl::