Phone-Hacking Trial:- Tabloids and Murdock

jamba

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I have been meaning to post about this phone-hacking trial now underway in the U.K. It has relevance to MJ b/c these are the same people who made his life hell on earth and now they are getting their karmic kick in the ass for their crimes.

The 2 'big fish' on trial are Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. There is a lot to say about Rebekah Brooks. I will just sketch it out and add more detail later. She started at the News of the World(a Sunday newspaper) and then went to the Sun (a daily newspaper). ("Sunday Times not a friend of mine"--Tabloid Junkie). She ended up being the editor of both of these 2 tabloids. It was the Sun that started the name W--J---. She started out writing a column for the News of the World and from there went up the ladder til she was Rupert Murdock's favorite.

(What is phone-hacking? It's accessing the personal cell phones and voice messages of targeted people by dialing in and using the default codes set by cell phone companies to listen to VM remotely. Most people, it turned out, did not reset these default PINs to their own passwords.)

edit: they also obtained the passcodes to the phones, when the owners had changed them from default codes, by bribery etc.

It was revealed in court she had a 6 year affair with Andy Coulson. He was the editor of the News of the World as well, while she was at the Sun. He later got chosen to be communications/p.r. director for David Cameron, the current Prime Minister. He had to resign when all this phone hacking came out, and News of the World also folded as a result.

This trial and scandal are rocking the tabs and it is high time their disgusting crimes against celebs and others (average people like families of crime victims and deceased soldiers in wars and also the Royal Family was heavily targeted) are brought to light and I hope they go to jail and this 'filthy press' is permanently shut down--it is a form of national and international bullying and corrupts the whole social fabric.

There have been many arrests and attempts to stop the ineffective 'self-regulation' of the press. The police were paid informants for the tabs and some of them have been arrested too.

I hope to add more info later. Just wanted to start this thread as I think it's important as vindication for all the MJ said about 'filthy press.' I am happy to see these criminals 'brought to justice' for how they slandered him and made it ok to denigrate him.

Ironic that they accused HIM of crimes he didn't commit while they themselves were committing crimes that were unknown til now. They were the criminals while pointing the finger at him.

Here are some links:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/01/andy-coulson-calum-best-court-hears

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/01/andy-coulson-palace-phone-hacking-trial

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/01/phone-hacking-prince-harry-sandhurst-essay-story

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/28/phone-hacking-trial-rebekah-brooks-andy-coulson


This is an excerpt from a book that discusses the phone hacking issue:


"Murdock’s tabloids, including The Sun and The News of the World, were the first to brand Jackson “***** *****,” the first to splash the molestation scandal on the front pages, and the first to mock his death (“***** ***** Heart Attacko”). Fittingly, they were also the first to face their own scandals in the UK. So far there have been over 600 cases of phone hacking (illegally accessing the voice mail of celebrities, the royal family, politicians, murder victims, and families of war veterans). In addition to actual phone hacking, charges include conspiracy to conceal “industrial scale” phone hacking as well as bribing politicians and police; 90 have been arrested and 16 charged. Investigations led to numerous high-profile resignations, including the Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, and the closing of one tabloid–News of the World, purchased by Murdock in 1989 and closed after 168 years of publication due to the scandal. Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News International, the parent company of News of the World and The Sun, who presided over the smear campaign against Michael Jackson throughout her long career as editor of those papers, faces 5 criminal charges related to phone hacking and its cover-up."
 
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Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Serves them right. I hope they understand now what is it like being the other end (receiving end) of the tabloid garbage. They are practically standing on Michael shoes and I hope they get the feel of what Michael went through because of them.
 
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Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

this is one trial giving me alot of enjoyment!! guilty as sin even from the small amount of evidence we have seen.
 
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Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Bust the beast
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Thanks for starting this thread. I spent quite a bit of time day before and yesterday trying to find out what was going on in this trial. Bless you for this.

I am looking forward to coming to this thread and discussing the trial. I think it is very significant development for the media industry.
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

this is one trial is giving me alot of enjoyment!! guilty as sin even from the small amount of evidence we have seen.

You are right to say that they are guilty as sin even the trial is not over yet and not all the evidence presented yet. Those tabloids treated MJ as guilty over 20 years, so they get to feel it at first hand how does it feel.
I wonder if Rebekah and andy have twitter? I would join to twitter just for ask them how does it feel:)
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

The phone hacking is a prime example why "News Of The World" is dead and every tabloids should learn that if they keep on spreading more lies, they're gonna suffer the same fate if they keep it up.
 
Wikipedia on R. Brooks and her role in the tabs in UK and in Murdock's Empire.



"Rebekah Mary Brooks (née Wade; born 27 May 1968) is a British journalist and former newspaper editor. She was chief executive officer of News International from 2009 to 2011, having previously served as the youngest editor of a British national newspaper at News of the World from 2000 to 2003, and the first female editor of The Sun from 2003 to 2009. Brooks married actor Ross Kemp in 2002. They divorced in 2009 and she married former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks.

Brooks is a prominent figure in the News International phone hacking scandal, having been the editor of the News of the World when illegal phone hacking was carried out by the newspaper. On 15 July 2011, Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International, following widespread criticism of her role in the controversy. On 17 July 2011, she was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption – making corrupt payments to public officials. On 13 March 2012, she was again arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. On 15 May 2012, Brooks was charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Brooks said she was "baffled" by the decision to charge her.


Brooks and her husband appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court on 13 June on charges linked to the phone hacking scandal. District Judge Howard Riddle told the defendants they would go on trial at a later date at Southwark Crown Court remanding Brooks and her husband on bail until the next hearing on 22 June.
On 24 July 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that Brooks would be charged, along with six other former members of the staff of the News of the World, with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3 October 2000 to 9 August 2006. In addition to this "generic" charge, Brooks would be charged with four specific counts of conspiracy to intercept communications without lawful authority. These include a charge relating to the hacking of the voicemail of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.


News of the World
She joined the Sunday newspaper News of the World in 1989 as a secretary, before working as a feature writer for its Sunday magazine, eventually becoming the paper's deputy editor. In 1994, she prepared for the News of the World's interview with James Hewitt, a lover of Diana, Princess of Wales, by reserving a hotel suite and hiring a team to "kit it out with secret tape devices in various flowerpots and cupboards", Piers Morgan, her former boss, wrote in his memoir The Insider, The New York Times relayed in July 2011. In 1998, she transferred to the News of the World's daily counterpart, The Sun for a short time. She then returned to the News of the World in 2000 as editor; at the time, she was the youngest editor of a national British newspaper. While at the News of the World, Brooks oversaw its campaign of "naming and shaming" individuals suspected to be convicted child sex offenders — a campaign launched in the wake of the murder of Sarah Payne while hacking her mother's voicemail. The paper's decision led to angry mobs terrorising those they suspected of being child sex offenders, which included several cases of mistaken identity and one instance where a paediatrician had her house vandalised, apparently by people who thought her occupation meant she was a paedophile. The campaign was described as "grossly irresponsible" journalism by the Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Tony Butler, but Brooks defended the paper's actions on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, claiming that it was "only right that the public have controlled access" to information on sex offenders. The paper's already strong sales held up well under her leadership, while those of rival Sunday newspapers The People and the Sunday Mirror fell more sharply.

The Sun

In January 2003, she returned to The Sun, replacing her former boss David Yelland, to become its first female editor. On Brooks's first day as editor, the Page Three girl was Rebekah Parmar-Teasdale – the caption to the picture was "Rebekah from Wapping". Soon after becoming editor, Brooks ran the headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" concerning the mental health problems of former heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno. The next day The Sun ran a 600-word reply from the head of the mental health charity SANE, and since then has adopted a style guide on covering mental health stories prepared by the same charity. Brooks and her husband spent a day with the head of SANE and made donations to the charity.
During a March 2003 appearance before the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport as part of an inquiry into privacy issues, Brooks stated that her newspaper had paid police for information. Alison Clark, the director of corporate affairs at News International, later stated, "It is not company practice to pay police for information."
Brooks has been chairman of the organisation Women in Journalism, and has served as a judge for the "Guardian Student Media Awards" in November 2003 and the tenth annual Police Bravery Awards in July 2005, the latter sponsored by The Sun.
Under her editorship, Brooks' reporters won a number of prestigious awards, including the British Press Awards 'Reporter of the Year' in 2004 (John Kay), 2005 (Trevor Kavanagh) and 2006 (Oliver Harvey) as a result of stories originating from phone or email hacks and or blagging.


News International

In June 2009, it was announced that she would leave The Sun in September 2009, to become chief executive of the newspaper's parent company, News International.[8] Dominic Mohan was named her successor as editor of The Sun.


Phone hacking scandal

A police enquiry revealed that the News of the World had a routine practice of intercepting mobile phone messages of celebrities, politicians and other public figures. The newspaper's reporter, Clive Goodman, and Glenn Mulcaire, a hired investigator, were convicted and jailed for intercepting the phone messages of members of the Royal Family in 2006.

Questioning by MPs

In 2003, under questioning by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the House of Commons, Chris Bryant, MP, asked her and Andy Coulson whether either of their newspapers had ever been involved in various improper acts. Brooks replied, "We have paid police for information in the past." Andy Coulson stepped in to say that payments were only made lawfully. The Sun, of which Brooks was editor, subsequently ridiculed Chris Bryant in a number of articles, starting with one about a photograph of him in his underpants from a gay dating website. Brooks later claimed that in her response to Bryant's question she had merely been speaking about the widespread belief that payments had been made to police, and denied having any knowledge of specific payments.

According to MPs, Rebekah Brooks refused three times to attend the committee again to be questioned further, resulting in four committee members "considering asking the Serjeant at Arms to issue a warrant forcing Brooks to attend"; however they subsequently dropped this proposal because they believed their private lives would be investigated if they did so. John Whittingdale, chair of the committee, stated there was a conversation "about the possible repercussions of issuing a warrant for Brooks but said that did not have any bearing on his decision and he did not believe News International would target committee members."
On 11 May 2012, Brooks appeared as a witness in the Leveson Inquiry.

Milly Dowler

In 2011, The Guardian and a solicitor alleged that in 2002, when Brooks was editor, the paper had hacked the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler (later found to be murdered), to access messages left by her parents. The New York Times London reporter Sarah Lyall wrote that, if the allegations were true, "it would mean either that Ms. Brooks had no idea how the paper she edited was obtaining information about the Dowler family for its articles, or that she knew about the hacking and allowed it."

Resignation

In July 2011, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said Brooks should "consider her position" after the Milly Dowler allegations. Prime Minister David Cameron said that if Brooks had offered her resignation to him, he would have accepted it. Milly Dowler's parents also called for Brooks' resignation.
When Brooks told News of the World staff that the newspaper was being closed down, some reportedly said that all of their jobs had been sacrificed to save hers. Andreas Whittam Smith suggested that Brooks' decision not to resign was symptomatic of "the self-serving, conceited thesis that 'only I, who was at the helm during the disaster, can steer us to safety.'"

On 14 July, News Corporation's second largest shareholder, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Al-Saud, called for her resignation in a BBC interview.

Having previously had an offer of resignation rejected, Brooks resigned from News International on 15 July 2011. She said, "As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place. I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate. This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past. Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted."
The Daily Telegraph reported that despite resigning from her position, Brooks remained on the company payroll and continued to receive her salary from News International, having been told by Rupert Murdoch to "travel the world on him for a year."


Arrests and prosecution

On 17 July 2011, Brooks was arrested by police on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations. She was arrested by detectives working on Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police's phone hacking probe, and Operation Elveden, the probe examining illicit payments to police officers. Brooks' public relations agent Dave Wilson told CNN that she did not know she was going to be arrested when she arrived for a pre-arranged interview with London's Metropolitan Police Service. After 12 hours in custody, Brooks was released on bail until October 2011. On 13 March 2012, Brooks was rearrested, together with her husband, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Ninety people have been arrested in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information since police renewed investigations in 2011, many of them employees or agents of newspapers for which Brooks had responsibilities. Sixteen have been formally charged with crimes.

On 15 May 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charged Brooks and five others with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Charged along with Brooks regarding removal of documents and computers to conceal them from investigating detectives were her husband, her personal assistant, her bodyguard, her chauffeur, and the head of security at News International. These charges were made about 1 year after the Metropolitan Police Service reopened its dormant investigation into phone hacking, about 3 years after the then Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service told the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee that "no additional evidence has come to light," 5 years after News International executives began claiming that phone hacking was the work of a single "rogue reporter", 10 years after The Guardian began reporting that the Met had evidence of widespread illegal acquisition of confidential information, and 13 years after the Met began accumulating "boxloads" of that evidence, including information sources for News of the World journalists, but kept it unexamined in trash bags at Scotland Yard.

Brooks' trial over the phone-hacking claims began on 28 October 2013 and is expected to last several months.
On 31 October 2013 it was revealed she had had an affair lasting at least six years with Andy Coulson, another key figure in the phone-hacking scandal.

Political connections

Brooks and her husband have close social ties to Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife. For example, a December 2010 dinner party was attended by Cameron and James Murdoch. In 2008 she borrowed a retired police horse from the Metropolitan Police. She kept it on her Oxfordshire farm, where it was ridden by David Cameron.
Brooks was once also a friend of Tony and Cherie Blair; and Gordon and Sarah Brown. Her wedding to Charlie Brooks in 2009 was attended by Gordon Brown and David Cameron.
Her ex-husband Ross Kemp "starred" the Labour Party spot for the 2010 UK General Elections.
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

ok, look at the dates of R. Brooks employment at Murdock's tabs:

She starts working for News of the World in 1989!! Before the 1993 allegations. So she is on board for the whole period of the slanderous smears against MJ starting from 1993 on.

She goes from being a deputy editor at News of the World (a Sunday newspaper) to the Sun (a daily newspaper) from 1998-2000.

She is editor of News of the World from 2000-2003

She is editor of the Sun from January 2003-2009

She is CEO of News International (a part of Murdock's publishing empire) June 2009-2011

It looks to me like her career boosts coincide with events in MJ's life. For example, she is made CEO of News International in June, 2009. Is that just a coincidence? Or is she rewarded for her poison pen when it comes to attacking MJ?

She becomes editor of the Sun in January 2003--meaning she is at the helm of the Sun during the Arvizo allegations and trial. Was she put there deliberately b/c Brits working for the tabs were anticipating the scandal erupting from the Bashit hitpiece that would come out in February 2003?? Transcripts of the interview were given out in advance of the actual airing (not sure how much in advance--maybe only a few weeks, but I am sure the upper echelons of Murdock's tabs, knew exactly what Bashir had planned and were ready to take full advantage).

The book Tabloid Baby talks about how the USA press would leak things to the UK press first--then claim they were only 'repeating' another news source. Remember the Chandler Declaration got leaked at the same time Bashit LWMJ aired in USA. Ed Bradley went to interview MJ in Neverland on Feb 7th and MJ cancelled the interview, meant to be a rebuttal/response to LWMJ, when Marlon Brando called to say that the Declaration was going to be published in the press (it was under seal since 1994, but Feldman gave copies to the press before it was sealed by the judge).

Interesting that Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal calls for Brooks' resignation--wasn't he involved in MJ projects (Kingdom Entertainment)??
 
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Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Excerpts from Wikipedia on Rupert Murdock:

"Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American media mogul. Murdoch became managing director of Australia's News Limited, inherited from his father, in 1952. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, and its successors News Corp and 21st Century Fox after the conglomerate split on 28 June 2013.

In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market, but retained interests in Australia and Britain. In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet, and became a naturalised US citizen in 1985.
In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and The Wall Street Journal (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.

In July 2011 Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty and public citizens. He faces police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US. On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of News International.
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Here's a youtube video made by a fan that has screen captures of the tabloid headlines attacking MJ--it's sad to watch but this is what happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH1akie2Dzc

The screen shots include shots of a column in The Sun called "Bizarre," which focused on showbiz 'news.' This was the starting point for Piers Morgan, Andy Coulson, Dominic Mohan, Victoria Newton, etc.
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

info today from the trial is that Brooks ordered that 7 boxes of her notebooks be taken from storage to the home of her assistant, and they have never been found to this day! The boxes were taken after the closing of News of the World was announced. She also wanted ALL her emails destroyed up to January 2010, meaning all emails destroyed during the time she was editor of the Sun and the News of the World. They were destroyed. (It was policy to destroy them up to 08, but she wanted them destroyed up to 2010.)

This relates to obstruction of justice, destroying evidence charges.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/04/rebekah-brooks-news-world-phone-hacking-trial

It's interesting how these tabloid higher-ups go from tabloid to tabloid. This guy Colin Myler, for example, is now editor in chief of a NYC paper The Daily News (owned by Zuckerman). But he was editor before that of the NY Post (a Murdock tabloid), and before that News of the World, and before that Sunday People (UK) Sunday Mirror, and Daily Mirror.
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

what goes around comes around..
 
Latest on the trial of Rebekah Brooks (2 articles). The articles deal with an assistant (Carter) who took 7 boxes out of storage belonging to Brooks and destroyed 30 notebooks, claiming they were notes of her own and not of Brooks. She is charged with obstruction of justice. This was done 2 days before News of the World was closed and ended publication due to phone-hacking scandal.

Phone hacking

Rebekah Brooks's secretary denied allegations that the former News International chief executive tried to help her get a fresh start in Australia as "payment in kind" for helping to remove seven boxes of notebooks and other material from the company archive.
Cheryl Carter also categorically denied to police that she had tried to obstruct the course of justice on behalf of her former boss by concealing boxes from Scotland Yard investigators in the wake of the closure of the News of the World in July 2011, the Old Bailey heard on Wednesday.
In an interview in January 2012, Carter told Detective Sergeant John Massey there was "no substance" in any of the allegations.
He asked her whether she thought the removal of the seven boxes and the decision to take them home "might be interpreted as being suspicious or dangerous or illegal or criminal in some way". Carter replied "No."
In the interview read out to the jury in the hacking trial at the Old Bailey, Massey then put it to her: "You didn't think that taking possession of seven boxes marked up as 'Rebekah Brooks' the day after the paper had announced that it was closing, and then getting rid of them, was something that would put you in a very difficult position."
Carter replied: "No, because I knew they were mine, so I knew that I was going to return anything, which I did, that was hers … because in my mind, I wasn't doing anything wrong."
The jury heard on Tuesday that the Carter family had contemplated emigrating to Australia as far back as 2003 and had got visas to allow legal entry in 2007 which would last five years.
When she was arrested on 6 January 2012, Carter and her family had tickets to move to Australia permanently two weeks later.
DC Massey put it to her that this could be seen as suspicious."The subsequent decision by yourself and your family to move to Australia, with some employment, initiated and assisted in some way by Rebekah Brooks of News International … that again there is nothing suspicious in that?"
Carter said this was not true as she wanted to launch her makeup business. "No, because I don't really want to work for the paper [in Australia], I need a job, I have lost my livelihood," she told police.
"I want to do my makeup [business], so if they turn around or whatever and say 'you are not working there' that is fine, I want to do my makeup out there."
DC Massey then said: "So that is not a payment in kind for you having dutifully got rid of some property that could have caused serious difficulties in the police investigation?"
Carter replied: "100% no, on my children's life. No. Absolutely not. That is not what I am about."
On Tuesday the jury heard that Carter had phoned the News International archivist, Nick Mays, requesting the return of seven boxes that contained notebooks and some personal effects belonging to Brooks.
Carter had said she had initially got a call from the archivist in April 2011 requesting her to collect the boxes because the company wanted to downsize its archive. Mays told police he did not make this call and had no instruction to downsize the archive, the jury heard.
The jury heard that Carter had told police the boxes contained 30 notebooks belonging to her, some cuttings relating to her beauty column in the Sun and some memorabilia, plus three notepads belonging to Brooks that she returned to the News International office.
The jury also heard on Tuesday that the police had alleged that Carter was planning a fresh start in Australia and this may have been a "reward" for concealing the boxes.
She was asked by police in her final interview if it was true that Brooks had helped her to find a new job in Australia in one of Rupert Murdoch's papers.
"Yes, she spoke to [former News Ltd chief executive] John Hartigan, who is in charge of some of the Australian papers. I do not know what she said but when I went there, they said 'Look, you know, you can start as a general secretary if you want to'," Carter said.
She said the job had a salary of £30,000, less than half the £66,000 salary she was on when acting as executive assistant to Brooks in her role as chief executive officer of News International.
Carter told police there was no firm offer and she intended to emigrate to Australia with her family and hoped to launch her own range of cosmetics in the country. She already had a range, Famous, carried by Superdrug in the UK and she had been offered a chance to launch these there with her husband Jeff.
"They have not offered me … the best thing they said is that I can start as a junior secretary if I want and work my way up. But like I say I was going to do the makeup out there, that was mine and Jeff's intention to try and get the brands into Australia and build a business out there," said Carter.
She repeated to the police that she had returned all the material that related to Brooks to the office and the police could have seen that when they sealed and searched her office following the executive's resignation.
"Anything, that was remotely [to do with] Rebekah Brooks went back to News International and the police could have looked at," Carter replied.
Carter and Brooks have been charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice by concealing seven boxes from officers investigating phone hacking.
They both deny the charge.
The trial continues.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/08/rebekah-brooks-pa-cheryl-carter-phone-hacking-trial

Rebekah Brooks's two personal assistants "effectively ran her life", deputed by her to do everything from getting her bottled water in the mornings to withdrawing cash and to dealing with her mortgages, the Old Bailey heard.
They also dealt with the former News International chief executive's mother, her racehorse trainer husband Charlie and her two personal trainers.
The Old Bailey jury heard on Wednesday how the filing cabinets and cupboards outside Brooks's office in Thomas More Square were filled with documentation relating to personal items, including wage slips, pension, shares and documents relating to an investment bank.
In a cabinet market "strictly private" in the area where her two personal assistants sat were "share options, marriage certificate, gun licence" among other things, the jury was told by Trevor Burke, counsel for her long-standing PA Cheryl Carter.
He painted a picture of a world in which Carter and Brooks's second PA, Deborah Keegan, would take control of everything that interrupted Brooks's working life.
Burke put it to Keegan that she and Carter would "deal with her bank, her mother, Charlie, Charlie's banking, holidays sorted, her cars, deal with her security, cleaners at home, mortgages".
Their morning routine would involve getting her a bottle of water, organising her appointments and returning clothes she had bought online.
Keegan agreed with Burke when he put it to her that the two PAs had access to Brooks's banking information, including the pin code for her cash card.
"Every Monday morning, you would take her card, go to the bank and withdraw £200 in advance of her expenses and put it in her purse," Burke said to Keegan.
He read emails from Brooks to both to illustrate how much they did for her. One email read: "Book a table for me and KRM [Rupert Murdoch] at [inaudible name of restaurant] Saturday night please. Quitest [sic] table."
In another, she asked her assistants to "please make sure I get to Marks & Spencer tonight", with an attached list of shopping.
Her assistants were also asked to look after some of her husband's appointments, with one email from one PA to the other asking if they had the "receipt for Charlie's hotel you booked for Doncaster last week".
Keegan told the jury that sometimes it was so busy in Brooks's office they needed three secretaries. We were, she said, "drowning in work".
She was asked about the day Carter went to retrieve seven boxes labelled in the News International archive as containing Brooks's notepads.
Keegan remembered that Carter had asked her to call her husband, Gary, to help load them into Carter's son's car on 8 July 2011, two days before the News of the World closed, but she pointed out there was no room for the boxes anywhere in the office because James Murdoch, then chairman of News International, was "anti-clutter".
She also told how Brooks's office had been dramatically reduced in size, first when she moved office in News International's Wapping premises after being promoted from Sun editor to chief executive, and again when the publisher moved across the road to a new headquarters at Thomas More Square.
The first office was formerly occupied by proprietor Rupert Murdoch and was divided in two, with one half going to Brooks and rest going to James Murdoch, the jury were told.
Carter has been charged with one count of conspiring to pervert the course of justice, which she denies.
Brooks has been charged with two counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice, both of which she denies.
The trial continues.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/08/rebekah-brooks-pas-phone-hacking-trial
 
From testimony today-- regarding obstruction of justice by R. Brooks re the investigation into NOTW phone-hacking, which led to its closing in 2011 and her resignation as CEO.

News International put a plan into action to protect Rebekah Brooks from the media and help her deal with "police concern" in the week the phone-hacking scandal erupted with the revelation that Milly Dowler's phone was hacked, the Old Bailey has heard.

The company's former director of security, Mark Hanna, told Brooks on 5 July, the day after the Dowler hacking came to light, that he had discussed the plan with her husband Charlie and the best option was to stay in their Chelsea home that night. He also suggested "switching vehicles".

An email sent at 7.45pm by Hanna to Brooks and copied in to her personal assistant, Deborah Keegan, also mentions an alternative plan if there is "police concern".

The email, read to the jury in the phone-hacking trial on Thursday read: "Rebekah, I've taken the liberty of calling Charlie and discussing the overnight accommodation request. We are both in agreement that Chelsea would be best option for a variety of reasons. We will have in place the same process as before (team etc) who will notify me if they see the media around the area."

He continued: "If police concern, we put in place the previous plan of entry and exit teams."

The Milly Dowler story was published on the Guardian website on the afternoon of Monday, 4 July, and then on the front page of the paper on 5 July, prompting the national scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World the following Sunday and the resignation of Brooks as News International chief executive two weeks later.

The jury also heard that inquiries were being made within News International about Brooks's whereabouts on the 2002 weekend when the News of the World published a story about the missing schoolgirl which referred to her voice messages.

Keegan made inquiries with Brooks's bank to see if she could get bank statements for that period. She was told the bank only held records for six years.

Keegan told the jury that she did not know why she was being asked to check these records at the time.

The jury was also told of an email inquiring about Brooks's 2002/2003 diaries, dated 23 June, 2011, days before the Dowler story appeared.

The jury has already been told that the publisher was engulfed in a "media firestorm" following the Dowler revelations and that the company swung an operation into place called Operation Blackhawk to protect Brooks from the media.

The jury heard that Brooks resigned on 15 July after she had become a "person of interest" to the police.

The announcement of her departure was made at 9.30am on that Friday with instructions from police that her office was to be sealed by noon, ready for a subsequent search by Scotland Yard.

Brooks went to say her goodbyes to staff during the morning and was escorted out of the building by Jane Viner, group head of property and facilities, the head of IT, Paul Cheeseborough, and a security person.

Viner told the court of the "upset" and "shock" felt by Brooks as she walked out of the building. "She was quite upset, subdued and upset," said Viner.

Asked whether she looked "shocked by what had occurred," Viner replied: "Yes, she did" adding it was "very uncomfortable" task for her to undertake also.

Brooks has been charged with two counts of conspiring to pervert the course of justice. She has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The trial continues.
• Brooks's PA had meetings with defendant, jury told

• Brooks was upset by Dowler voicemail hacking, say PAs

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/09/rebekah-brooks-protected-dowler-phone-hacking
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Just to add to this that the 7 boxes of stuff taken out of the NOTW storage by R. Brooks' secretary right before Brooks became a person of interest and was arrested, and right before the NOTW was closed, was only discovered by a fluke b/c the stuff to be tossed was put near a trash pick up site in an apt bldg but was not picked up--I believe that a courier was supposed to come by and pick it up and remove it, but for some reason the signals got crossed. It was a janitor/custodian who finally looked at the trash and reported it. This is how the police knew there was an effort to purge the files for R. Brooks. Unfortunately, Carter, the secretary, now claims she destroyed 30 notebooks b/c they were hers, not Brooks'--will the court believe this? Hope not. Removing these documents and destroying them is part of the basis for the obstruction of justice charges against Brooks and her secretary.
 
29 DECEMBER 2013 - 10:30AM UPDATED | POSTED BY JAMES DOLEMAN | 5 COMMENTS
Weeting, Elveden and Sacha: the story of the Rebekah Brooks & Andy Coulson trial so far
Mr Justice Saunders
Mr Justice Saunders
"These things happen in the best organised cases, only time will tell if this is a well organised case." - Mr Justice Saunders, 28/11/2013.

The trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and five others has now heard eight weeks of evidence. With the number of defendants and charges this was always going to be a complex case, so as court is now adjourned I thought it might be useful to summarise where we have reached in the evidence.

The full list of charges arose from three separate, but linked, police investigations. These are; Operation Weeting, the inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World, Operation Elveden, a probe into allegations of corrupt payments to public officials and Operation Sacha, the inquiry into an alleged conspiracy to conceal evidence from the police. These names, we are told, are selected at random by a police computer. The jury at the Old Bailey has heard evidence from Weeting and Elveden but not Sacha.

On Weeting, there is no dispute that victims' voicemails were intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, who has already been convicted for the offence. Transcripts and recordings of voicemails have been seized from Mulcaire's home and from a safe at the News of the World's offices in Wapping. The question before the jury is - did the defendants; Andrew Coulson, Rebekah Brooks and Stuart Kuttner, conspire in the commission of this offence?

You can find out more about the legal definition of conspiracy here. However in summary what has to be proved to secure a conviction is that the accused entered into an agreement to conduct this illegal act. The prosecution has shown the jury numerous articles from the News of the World it claims were sourced from Mulcaire's hacking. In one story shown to the court, voicemail messages from the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler were directly quoted, although these were removed before the second edition of the paper was printed. How, the prosecution ask, could all of this have been going on without the editors, Brooks then Coulson, being aware of it?

While we have not heard the full defence case, its outline can be partially deduced from statements made by the defendants on their arrest and by interventions from defence counsel. The defence argue that the editor had a wider role in the newspaper than checking every story for accuracy. These checks, the jury has been told, were the responsibility of news editors and the paper's legal staff. Timothy Langdale, QC for Coulson, has told the jury that the News of the World was a “story gathering factory” and the flow of information was “endless and continuing". Brooks told the police she did not ask "detailed questions on sources" as journalists preferred to keep these confidential.

A large part of the evidence the prosecution has presented is in the form of internal News International email traffic which has been recovered from various sources. The data is incomplete, much of it having been deleted. However the Crown claim that some of these emails show a knowledge of phone-hacking, highlighting one between Coulson and a journalist from May 2006 in which, discussing Calum Best, Coulson states "Do his phone". The defence, however, challenge this interpretation, telling the jury this email relates to an internal investigation into an information leak and not to voicemail interception.

The Elveden charges against Coulson revolve around his period as editor of the News of the World and his work with then Royal editor, Clive Goodman. When police raided Goodman's home in 2006 they found copies of Royal internal phone directories and the more detailed "green book" of the phone numbers and addresses of the "Royal household". The prosecution say that recovered emails between Goodman and Coulson that show them discussing paying uniformed police officers from the Royal protection squad to secure the directories, and indeed one of the books did have a police officer's fingerprint on it. The defence continue to deny this charge but so far we have heard no real detail about their rebuttal.

The Elevden charges against Brooks relate to her time as editor of the Sun newspaper and stories about the armed forces and the Royal princes. The court has heard evidence that a Bettina Jordan-Barber, who worked at the secretariat for the Ministry of Defence, was paid in cash by the Sun for military stories. Emails show, the prosecution argue, that these payments were were personally approved by Brooks. In her statement to police, Brooks responded to these allegations by saying "I've been shown emails, some of which I responded to. I sent and received literally millions of emails while being a national newspaper editor and it would be impossible to read every one." Brooks also states she had never heard the name Bettina Jordan-Barber and had no idea of who the source of these stories was as she "trusted the reporter". On the second set of Elveden charges, Brooks denies any recollection of paying £4,000 for a picture of Prince William or of remembering receiving emails related to it. In the end the Sun did not publish the picture and it has never been located.

Evidence from the charges arising from operation Sacha has not been heard yet. We do know from the prosecution opening statement that Rebekah Brooks, her husband Charlie, ex-News International security chief Mark Hanna and Brooks's secretary Cheryl Carter are charged with various allegations of hiding evidence from the police including seven boxes of notebooks belonging to Rebekah Brooks and various pieces of computer equipment. None of these items have ever been recovered.

Before court adjourned Mr Justice Saunders told the jury the case was running approximately two weeks late, but "like the trains, we hope to make time up on the way." It is, of course, not up to the defence to prove anything, they just have to convince the jury that there is, at least, a reasonable doubt can be cast on the prosecution case. The jury is scheduled to retire to consider it's verdict just before Easter. The "trial of the century" continues with all of the accused continuing to deny all of the charges.

http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2013/12/28/weetingelvedon-and-sacha-story-trial-so-far
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Some very interesting stuff on YouTube re the background, ramifications of this and about the incredibly powerful media empire Rupert Murdock built over the years, how he affected the politics of the countries and indeed the world, how it got started, how he redefined (and corrupted) journalism (!!!), etc.

Rupert Murdock's War on Journalism--very, very good, focuses esp on USA and Fox News; but shows the modus operandi for his entire empire. Discusses Rupert's relationship with the White House under Reagan/Bush. This guy is actually influencing/shaping foreign and domestic policy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFDwdRXCg3I

News of the World--UK (done by Australian org--Journeyman Pictures) A very interesting documentary; it covers the time before the 2011 scandal broke. Discusses Rupert's relationship and Thatcher (they loved each other!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZV8LGnnGgU

BBC Documentary Rupert Murdock Battle With Britain. This goes into his life story--his upper class family, his conservatism, how he took on the British 'elites' (as he saw them) and how he altered the media in UK, starting in the mid to late 80's. His transformation of Fleet Street from print to digital media; his destruction of the print union, Sky news (satellite--to get around regulations), etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbFUH6RXR78
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

^Need to remember that altho the phone hacking is centred on notw, it's clear that all the other tabloid newspaper groups were doing exactly the same thing not just news int. Why piers morgan of the mirror has escaped prosecution i have no idea. It was endemic in the uk.

Just to add to this that the 7 boxes of stuff taken out of the NOTW storage by R. Brooks' secretary right before Brooks became a person of interest and was arrested, and right before the NOTW was closed, was only discovered by a fluke b/c the stuff to be tossed was put near a trash pick up site in an apt bldg but was not picked up--I believe that a courier was supposed to come by and pick it up and remove it, but for some reason the signals got crossed. It was a janitor/custodian who finally looked at the trash and reported it.
The actual story is really quite funny, the security guys working for rebecca clearly thought they were in some spy film but it all turned out to be a bit of a disaster. It was an attempt to hide computers and certain evidence from a police search of the brooks's home by spiriting it away to the office. When the coast was clear, it was meant to be delivered back stealthily to rebecca in her flat's underground carpark and rebecca and her husband were due to pick it up, but the cleaner got to it first. The jury was shown carpark cctv of rebecca and her husband frantically searching for the missing stuff.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...pired-classic-war-film-Where-Eagles-Dare.html
 
Last edited:
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

Another link to 'pizzagate'--the way the Brooks (Rebekah and Charlie) tried to hide evidence from the police investigation. The cleaner who picked up the stuff they were trying to hide is identified (mr. Naciemiento) and will be testifying later on.

phone-hacking trial: Charlie Brooks CCTV footage released
Prosecution claims Rebekah Brooks's husband was involved in plan to hide evidence from police in underground car park
Lisa O'Carroll
theguardian.com, Tuesday 14 January 2014 09.54 EST

Link to video: Full CCTV footage of Charlie Brooks allegedly hiding evidence
CCTV footage showing Rebekah Brooks's husband Charlie and security staff working for News International allegedly hiding evidence from police investigating phone hacking has been released.

Footage showed a sequence of events on 17 July 2011 to lunchtime the following day involving Charlie Brooks, a team of security men and drivers working for News International and a cleaner who was alleged to have found a jiffy bag and computer said to have been disposed of following Rebekah Brooks's arrest that day.

Prosecutors in the phone-hacking trial have already told the jury the crown's case is that it was part of a "quite a complicated and risky" cover-up designed to hinder a police search of the Brooks's Chelsea Harbour home following her arrest at noon.

The following day one security man contracted to News International texted his boss to say "Filth all over the underground car park" after the police were alerted to the disappearance of material.

The first footage seen by jurors showed Charlie Brooks emerging out of a lift into the underground car park in the Chelsea Habour building carrying a jiffy bag and a laptop. He disappeared off camera to what the prosecutors said was the "bin area" and moments later he was seen returning to the entrance of the lift "empty-handed".

It is alleged that this material was removed from the car park by security operatives and returned later that day after the police search was completed. The conspiracy to conceal evidence backfired after the material was discovered by a cleaner the following day, it was alleged by the prosecution.

The couple, along with News International's head of security Mark Hanna, have been charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice, a charge they have all denied.

The three defendants sat in the dock on Tuesday as the jury were shown footage and told of mobile phone call records that placed them in various locations around London on the day of Brooks's arrest.

She was driven to Lewisham police station for a pre-arranged interview at noon that day and was arrested a few minutes later.

The jury was shown footage of Hanna driving into the car park about two hours later to meet her husband in the car park.

Prosecutor Mark Bryant-Heron told the jury that Charlie Brooks "presents him with a brown bag". He was then recorded going to the bin area where Bryant-Heron said Hanna "collects material".

Moments later Hanna was seen emerging from the bin area carrying a brown brief case, a jiffy bag and the silver laptop and heading towards the lift. He was later captured on camera going to the overground level where he another security man is waiting for him in a small blue Renault. He got into the car and they drove off, heading for the Embankment, the jury was told.

That afternoon, at about 3pm, Brooks's solicitor Angus McBride was captured on camera letting two police cars into the car park.

The jury were told there were seven police officers in the cars who had been deputed to search Brooks's apartment.

They were recorded on camera about two hours later in the car park carrying computers sealed in plastic and other material seized from the Brooks's home.

Mobile phone records show that Brooks then contacted Hanna, and shortly after 9.30pm and following a number of calls between the members of security team one of them, named as Daryl Jorsling, arrived in the underground car park in a black Volkswagen Golf.

Bryant-Heron told the jury: "Daryl Jorsling removes a black bin bag from the boot of the car. He moves to the bin area and returns empty-handed."

Then, Bryant-Heron said, a man collected two pizzas from the bin area, which is allegedly part of the cover story.

The Golf car was then seen departing the building.

Jorsling was contracted to work for News International, which had organsed a security operation, codenamed Blackhawk, following Brooks's resignation on 8 July 2011.

William Geddes, the managing director of an outside security firm responsible for Blackhawk, told the jury it was designed to protect her from the media and members of the public intent on engaging in "hostile reconnaissance" against her.

Following the pizza delivery and the removal of the bin bag from the Golf car, Jorsling was recorded as texting one of his Blackhawk colleagues, David Johnson.

"Broadsword calling Danny Boy. Pizza delivered and the chicken is in the pot," the security contractor wrote in a text message.

The jury has already heard this was a Richard Burton line from the war film Where Eagles Dare.

"Ha! ****in amateurs!" the colleague replied.

"We should have done a DLB [dead letter box] or brush contact on riverside. Cheers mate. Log in the hours ad [sic] "pizza delivery", Johnson added.

The following day, while the Brookses went to their lawyer's office, a cleaner discovered the black bag, the court heard. On their return, Charlie Brooks and members of their security team were seen apparently searching for the bag.

Later the jury heard that a phone call was made to the police relating to the material found by the cleaner.

The police arrived at Chelsea Harbour at 2.10pm.

About 5pm, one of the security aides texted Geddes: "Filth all over underground car park. Ref Pizzagate".

Footage of the cleaner showed a man, identified as Mr Nascimento, in the car park driving a mini tractor. He went to the bin area and wheeled out a green minikip then proceeded to drive through the car park to attach three more mini-skips.

The jury was told that he found the black bag behind the bins, although this itself was not captured on camera.

The jury was told that the cleaner will be giving evidence for the prosecution at the trial.

The trial continues.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/14/phone-hacking-trial-cctv-charlie-brooks-laptop
 
Re: Phone-Hacking Trial: Karma Catches Up with the Tabloids and Murdock

The first footage seen by jurors showed Charlie Brooks emerging out of a lift into the underground car park in the Chelsea Habour building carrying a jiffy bag and a laptop. He disappeared off camera to what the prosecutors said was the "bin area" and moments later he was seen returning to the entrance of the lift "empty-handed".
Lol, part of the 'evidence' charlie brooks was keen to keep away from prying police eyes was his collection of lesbian porn mags. They found some in the jiffy bag.
 
Today's news from the court (and now we know if we didn't befoee why MJ kept changing his phone #'s and why he got to the point he didn't even have a phone:

"News of the World reporter hacked phones a thousand times, he tells court
Dan Evans tells Old Bailey that when he arrived at paper he was given a list of celebrities including Simon Cowell and Cilla Black


Lisa O'Carroll
theguardian.com, Monday 27 January 2014 12.10 EST
Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell's name was on a list of celebrities given to a reporter when he started at the News of the World, he has told the phone-hacking trial. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features
A former reporter at the News of the World has told how he hacked phones a thousand times after he was handed a list of celebrity numbers when he joined the paper in 2005, the Old Bailey has heard.

Dan Evans, who has pleaded guilty to intercepting voice messages at the News of the World, also told the phone-hacking trial on Monday about the "kerching moment" when he met NoW editor Andy Coulson and mentioned how he had hacked phones at the Sunday Mirror in the past.

He said: "I told him about my background, the sort of stories I had been doing. Almost the sort of stuff I had been through before."

Following prompting by the other News of the World journalist at the meeting Evans said he told Coulson: "I got on to voicemails and interception and I told him I had a lot of commercially sensitive data in my head and how things worked at the Sunday Mirror and I could bring him big exclusive stories cheaply which was the kerching moment. Bring exclusive stories cheaply equals job."

Evans said that at the News of the World he was given cash to buy pay-as-you-go phones that were nicknamed "burners". These, he explained, were phones used for "illicit activities" and would be destroyed or "burned" after two to three months.

Asked how often he hacked between his start date on the paper in January 2005 and the arrest of the paper's then royal editor, Clive Goodman, for hacking-related offences in August 2006, Evans replied: "Probably most days, there might have been the odd lull."

Evans has also pleaded guilty to hacking phones while at the Sunday Mirror.

He is the first journalist to plead guilty to hacking phones while working for a paper other than the News of the World.

The journalist told the jury that he started hacking phones after he was made a staff reporter at the Sunday Mirror and carried out this activity for about "a year and a half".

Evans, who has pleaded guilty to hacking phones at the News of the World up to 2010, described how "there was an explicit lockdown in the dark arts" following Goodman's arrest and there had been a gap of "years and years" before he started again.

He said he stopped using the burner phones and just starting using the company phones. "It was just easier. The culture there was pretty blasé about this kind of thing bizarrely."

When Evans started at the News of the World, his new boss handed him a list of hundreds of celebrity numbers including those of Simon Cowell, Cilla Black and Zoe Ball.

Evans said he was given the numbers "because he wanted me to hack the interesting names on it".

He had "a crack" at getting into around 100 of them, but with repeat calls to voicemails included, he probably hacked phones "1,000 [times] plus, more".

Evans was also given cash to buy "burner" phones.

He explained: "They were called burner phones because after a while I'd burn them."

Evans told how he learned the practice of "pretext blagging", which involved ringing a mobile phone operator or another company and impersonating a staff member from credit control or a similar department.

He told the jury that "pretty much any private data" was available "on demand" at the News of the World including mobile phone numbers, mobile phone bills, credit card numbers, medical records and tax records.

Evans explained how he would ring the voicemail numbers on one phone and then count to three and ring it again on another phone to try and "trick" the target handset into going onto voicemail without alerting the owner.

He said he had learned some hacking etiquette at the Sunday Mirror where he was told "don't leave footprints". This meant he would never listen to messages that had not been played by the owner, but he would return later to pick them up.

Former journalist at News of The World and Sunday Mirror Evans after giving evidence in London
Dan Evans moved to the News of the World from the Sunday Mirror in 2005. Earlier, Evans described a phone-hacking target list at the Sunday Mirror as containing "lists of celebrities' voicemail pin numbers" and "celebrity agents [voicemail numbers] where you would pick up voicemails left by them".

It was updated regularly by him as pin codes got changed or new celebrities appeared on the "radar".

He described how, at the Sunday Mirror, he had been handed "pages of famous people's numbers" and told: "This is your job. You have to hack and crack the voicemail pincodes of all these people."

He said his "general day-to-day life changed" after that. Evans said he was successful at the hacking and he felt he "ended up forsaking the stuff I really enjoyed", which was investigative journalism.

Evans, who was a news reporter, has also pleaded guilty to two other charges, the jury in the hacking trial has been told – a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office and providing a false witness statement in relation to proceedings taken against him by the interior designer Kelly Hoppen.

The jury was told he entered his plea in September last year but for legal reasons this could not be reported at the time.

The Sunday Mirror charge related covers the period between 28 February 2003 and 1 January 2005 while the News of the World charge relates to April 2004 and 1 June 2010.

Evans is the fifth person to have pleaded guilty in relation to hacking at the News of the World.


The jury heard at the start of the trial in October that journalists Weatherup, Neville Thurlbeck, Greg Miskiw and Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator and the paper's specialist hacker, have already pleaded guilty to intercepting voicemails.

The trial continues."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...reporter-hacked-phones-dan-evans-simon-cowell
 
From Daily Mail:
Mr Evans was offered the job the same day and he started at NOTW on January 5 2005 on a salary of £53,000 and was given a list of around 100 targets including Simon Cowell, David Beckham, Michael Barrymore and Michael Jackson, he told the jury.


I hope these rotten b.....s will get what they deserve, a long jail time :angry:
 
I came across interesting tidbit

CourtNewsUK ‏@CourtNewsUK 22h
Dan Evans on tabloid reporting: ‘Sometimes when it says “a source says” it’s made up. I am sorry to shatter any illusions.’

That twitter is reputable and sends tweets about current court cases.
What was interesting that I tried to find article about Dan Evans saying that source is made up, I could find it only mentioned in BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25963637

Funny that no other newspaper/tabloid (at least that I could find) mention that source thingy, probably because they all do the same and don't people to know that it practice they all do.
From now on, we should send that quote to all "reporters" (RF,SB, TMZ, Radar etc) who prints stories and use "source close to him/family/kids/etc.
 
Dan Evans on tabloid reporting: ‘Sometimes when it says “a source says” it’s made up. I am sorry to shatter any illusions.’
-------------------------------------------

tell us something we dont know lol. if they get off then the jury must be either bought off or a thick as u know what
 
elusive moonwalker;3957153 said:
Dan Evans on tabloid reporting: ‘Sometimes when it says “a source says” it’s made up. I am sorry to shatter any illusions.’
-------------------------------------------

tell us something we dont know lol. if they get off then the jury must be either bought off or a thick as u know what

Well, before his revelation I wasn't sure, but now I am:)

I have to say I'm looking forward the next made up article (Stacy Brown:)) so we can start pestering the authors via twitter, facebook and comment below the article about how their source are made up.

excellent-mr-burns.gif
 
Story from today re trial:

"Rebekah Brooks feared £200,000 deal being seen as 'buying off' Max Clifford
Phone-hacking trial hears that News International executives considered deal to let PR veteran 'do business with the Sun'
Lisa O'Carroll
theguardian.com, Tuesday 4 February 2014 13.47 EST

Max Clifford: Rebekah Brooks and other News International executives were trying to settle the PR veteran's phone-hacking claim, the court heard.
Rebekah Brooks offered PR veteran Max Clifford a £200,000-a year-contract with the Sun in the belief he would "call off the lawyers" in his phone-hacking civil claim, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.

Senior executives at News International at one point suggested that Brooks give him money in cash after he demanded a written agreement.

Internal minutes of a meeting held in January 2010 involving Brooks and NI legal managers show that she feared the deal could backfire and could look as if the company was paying him off to stop potentially explosive revelations about hacking coming out in his civil action.

"Brooks said it would look terrible if seen to be 'buying off' Max," the minutes said. "Brooks reported that she got Max to agree £200,000 per annum to represent the Sun/do business with the Sun.

"He would call the lawyers off the next day if the deal was put in writing," the minutes continued. "We either get something in writing or she could physically turn up with cash to see him."

The meeting was held after it emerged that a potential civil case by Clifford in relation to hacking may have led to a court order requiring Glenn Mulcaire, already convicted of hacking offences, to name those involved in hacking on the News of the World.

"You have to think about what is worse – her doing a deal with Max which will be perceived as a cover-up or indemnifying Mulcaire so that he doesn't say anything about NGN [News Group Newspapers]," said the internal memo.
"He [Mulcaire] could say anything and he could say anybody – Chapman said it would certainly be difficult to prove that he [Mulcaire] was just making up names. Brooks said it would look terrible if seen to be 'buying off' Max," it continued.

The jury heard that the meeting was attended by Julian Pike, a partner at the law firm Farrer & Co; Tom Crone, the former legal manager of the News of the World; Jon Chapman, the former legal manager at News International; and Brooks.

The memo revealed the determination of News International to avoid Mulcaire revealing information about the Sunday tabloid in a potential Clifford trial. Brooks said she was "happy to do whatever it takes" to clinch a deal and did a month later.

"Once Max sees, say, £30,000 in his account, he will see we pay good rates at The Sun. He just has to accept he will be paid as things go along, it would be a mark of good faith," the memo said.

The court heard that Brooks had made efforts to see that a Sunday Times story would not harm the deal she was negotiating with Clifford.

The jury was shown an email from her to Sunday Times deputy editor Martin Ivens on 20 February 2010, asking him to reconsider a story on the MMR jab that Clifford was unhappy with. She told Ivens that she was close to closing a "legal settlement" with him and "another legal would be a nightmare".

"He's a slippery fish so you may have him bang to rights, in which case don't worry," she added, asking him to "cast an eye" over the story.

Ivens replied: "No problem, the story is quite vague and minor league, so we'll leave it." Brooks replied: "Thanks Martin, huge favour to ask I know."

Brooks has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy to intercept mobile phone communications. The former News International chief executive and David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson, who also denies the charges against him, will not know their fate until early summer.

Jurors were told by Justice Saunders that they would not be asked to consider their verdict until "the middle of May". The prosecution ends its case today with defence starting on February 17.

The remaining defendants are Clive Goodman, the News of the World's former royal editor, Stuart Kuttner's the paper's former managing editor, Cheryl Carter, Brooks's former PA, Mark Hanna, News International's head of security, and Charlie Brooks, the husband of Rebekah Brooks.


The trial continues."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/feb/04/rebekah-brooks-max-clifford-case-phone-hacking-trial
 
"What Happened At The News Corp. Phone Hacking Trial In January
Blog ››› February 3, 2014 12:35 PM EST ››› OLIVER WILLIS


The trial of several former News Corp. officials for their alleged involvement in hacking the voicemails of several prominent people, including British royalty, politicians, crime victims, and actors is in its second month. Among the developments: Actress Sienna Miller testified about her voicemail being hacked, a former News of the World reporter claimed officials knew about the phone hacking, jurors were told about executive cellphones going missing during the time of the hacking, and shown footage of one executive's spouse hiding a laptop in a parking garage.

Previous testimony and allegations from the prosecutor against former News International editors and executives Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, and Stuart Kuttner include orders to initiate phone hacking, hiding evidence of phone hacking, payments to officials, and obtaining private phone directories with royal phone numbers.

Here are several notable things we learned from the phone hacking trial in January:

Actress Sienna Miller testified that a private phone message between her and actor Daniel Craig was made public and had been turned into "a titillating piece of information" for the media, who claimed that the two were having an affair. After her testimony via video link, Judge John Saunders told Miller that "I am very sorry what has gone on in this court and reported in the press has caused you distress." Her ex-boyfriend, actor Jude Law, also testified at the trial.

The jury was given a police statement from former News of the World journalist Dan Evans, who said that he was "encouraged" to talk about phone hacking when interviewing with former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, and that he told Coulson that intercepting voicemails had saved money for his previous employer, the Sunday Mirror. Evans has already pleaded guilty to four charges, including two that are related to phone hacking.

News of the World archivist Nicholas Mays testified that Rebekah Brooks' personal assistant asked for Brooks' notebooks from the same time period that the phone hacking took place on the day that staff was told the newspaper would be shut down.

The jury was shown police evidence that as many as 10 mobile phones issued to Brooks during the time she edited News Corp.'sThe Sun newspaper and worked as chief executive for News International have disappeared and have not been accounted for.

News International had its offices and the homes of executives like Brooks swept for eavesdropping bugs as Rupert Murdoch was bidding to purchase broadcaster BSkyB.

Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Brooks' husband leaving a laptop and garbage bag in a parking garage under their apartment building on the same day she was arrested. Brooks has been accused of withholding evidence from police as they investigated the phone hacking."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/02/03/what-happened-at-the-news-corp-phone-hacking-tr/197894
 
Jamba is Brooks out on Bail & do you have a photo of her? I just want to see the face of the person that caused so much devastation.
 
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