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Phone Hacking: Brooks' Security Man Charged

Phone Hacking: Brooks' Security Man Charged

A bodyguard who worked for former News International boss Rebekah Brooks has been charged with perverting the course of justice, after allegedly hiding computers from police.

David Johnson, 47, is accused of concealing items from officers investigating allegations of phone hacking and corrupt payments to public officials by journalists at the News Of The World and The Sun.

The security professional allegedly conspired with six other people already charged in relation to Operation Sacha - namely Mrs Brooks, Charles Brooks, Mark Hanna, Lee Sandell, Daryl Jorsling and Paul Edwards - in July 2011.

Johnson, of Mitcham, Surrey, will appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on May 8.

Gregor McGill, a senior Crown Prosecution Service lawyer, said: "Following a careful review of the evidence, we have concluded that David Johnson, a security professional who was employed to provide a protection service to Rebekah Brooks, should be charged with an offence of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice."

"The decision to prosecute has been taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors," he added.

Operation Sacha is the Metropolitan Police investigation into allegations of perverting the course of justice.

It relates to Operation Weeting, the phone hacking inquiry, and Operation Elveden, the investigation into alleged corrupt payments to police and other public officials.