Hacking Trial: Blair 'Offered Advice To Brooks'

Tony Blair advised News International executive Rebekah Brooks to establish a Hutton-style inquiry to investigate the phone-hacking scandal, a court has heard.

The jury was shown an email sent by Brooks, summing up an hour-long telephone conversation with the former Prime Minister.

In it, she said Mr Blair had offered to act as "informal advisor" and gave a number of suggestions on how she should deal with the unfolding drama.

During the call Mr Blair allegedly said Brooks should attempt to set up an "independent" inquiry comprised of "an outside junior counsel, Ken Macdonald, a great and good type, a serious forensic barrister, internal counsel, proper fact-checkers etc in it", the court heard.

The aim would be to "publish a hutton (sic) style report".

The Hutton report was the result of an investigation carried out by Lord Hutton into the 2003 death of the former United Nations weapons inspector Dr David Kelly. It was criticised by some newspapers as an establishment whitewash.

The court was told that details of the conversation were transcribed by Brooks' and sent to her boss James Murdoch in an email at 4.21pm on July 11, 2011 - six days before she was arrested.

In the email she said Mr Blair suggested that part one of the report should be published at the same time police closed their inquiry but that she would have to accept her "shortcomings".

Brooks said in her email, which summed up Mr Blair's advice in five points, that the former Prime Minister had offered to be an "unofficial adviser" to her, James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch but that it must "be between us".

She also wrote in her email, a copy of which was shown to jurors, that he had told her to "tough up" and advised her to take sleeping pills to keep her head clear after she had asked him for guidance.

According to the email Mr Blair suggested "no rash short-term solutions as they only give you long-term headaches".

The email was sent in response to one Brooks had received from Mr Murdoch at 3.53pm saying: "What are you doing on email?" after she had sent him a message about News of the World sales of the final edition the day before.

In that email she had told Mr Murdoch the now defunct Sunday newspaper's sales were still around the 4m mark adding: "So much for a sales boycott".

Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, denies all charges in the phone hacking trial.

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