REBEKAH Brooks, the former CEO of News Corporation’s British unit, and 13 other people will face the first criminal trial stemming from the company’s tabloid phone-hacking scandal next September.
The group, including Andy Coulson, who was editor of the News of the World tabloid when the scandal started in 2006, appeared in a London court yesterday to set the trial date and get their bail extended. Judge Adrian Fulford, who is overseeing the case, scheduled another hearing for December 12 and barred the press from reporting other elements of the proceedings.
The scandal spawned the Leveson inquiry, a public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British press.
Ms Brooks and Mr Coulson, who was press chief for UK Prime Minister David Cameron, were among those charged this year with either conspiring to intercept the voicemail of celebrities, MPs and crime victims, or conspiring to cover up the practice as the probe intensified.
News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, a friend of Ms Brooks, closed the News of the World in July last year to help quell public anger after it emerged journalists accessed messages on a murdered schoolgirl’s cellphone. The investigation lead to parallel probes of computer hacking and bribery of police, and led to the arrest of more than 80 people, including the unit’s former head of security and its top lawyer.
Bloomberg
