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Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks to be charged over phone hacking
Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks charged over phone hacking
(about 3 hours later)
British prosecutors say they have the evidence to prove there was a criminal conspiracy at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World newspaper involving former senior executives, including Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, to hack the phones of more than 600 people including the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The British prime minister's former director of communications and Rupert Murdoch's closest confidante in London have been charged with conspiring to hack the phones of more than 600 people, including the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler and 7/7 terror attack victim John Tulloch, over a period of up to six years.
Announcing the charging of eight people over the phone-hacking scandal on Tuesday, prosecutors alleged the tabloid's targets ranged from a victim of the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks to celebrities and senior Labour politicians.
Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, who both edited the News of the World, were among eight people charged with 19 counts of conspiracy over the phone hacking scandal, with prosecutors alleging that the tabloid also targeted Labour cabinet ministers and celebrities – including at least one person associated with the Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Coulson left the editorship of the News of the World in 2007 after a journalist and private investigator were convicted of phone hacking, and would go on to be appointed as director of communications for the Conservative party. After the 2010 election Coulson worked in Downing Street for David Cameron, who said he deserved a "second chance", as one of the prime minister's most senior advisers, before Coulson resigned as renewed controversy over phone hacking grew.
The eight, all employed by Murdoch's now defunct News of the World, are the first people to be charged since the Metropolitan police reopened the phone hacking probe 18 months ago – following a series of articles by the Guardian in 2009 and 2010 and by other media organisations which suggested that the practice of intercepting voicemails went wider than had been thought.
Prosecutors say other victims of hacking include former senior Labour cabinet ministers such as the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, two former home secretaries, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell. The Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were also named as victims: two News of the World journalists are charged with conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages on the phones of a number of their associates.
Prominent British politicians were among other victims of the alleged hacking. The former deputy prime minister John Prescott, two former home secretaries, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, were targeted.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would charge Coulson and the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks in relation to the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone. The allegations about the hacking of the murdered schoolgirl's phone led Murdoch to decide to shut down the News of the World in 2011.
Celebrities named as victims by the CPS were the former England football manager Sven-Goran Erikson, the footballer Wayne Rooney, the celebrity chef Delia Smith, the actor Sienna Miller and the reality TV regular Calum Best, as well as Prof Tulloch, who was left bloody and burnt after the worst ever terrorist attacks on the UK mainland in July 2005,
Also charged over phone hacking are Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former news editor, Greg Miskiw, another former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Alison Levitt QC, principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions,, announced the decision at 11am in a televised press statement that coincided with the last day of hearings at the Leveson inquiry into British press ethics. Leviitt said she had determined that "a prosecution is required in the public interest in relation to each of these eight suspects" after satisfying herself that "there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction".
Alison Levitt QC, principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, announced the decision on Tuesday.
Coulson was charged on five counts of conspiring unlawfully to intercept communications, with specific charges relating to the hacking of phones to listen to voicemails relating to Milly Dowler, Blunkett, Clarke and Best. He was also charged – alongside six of the remaining seven – with conspiring to hack phones between 2000 and 2006, targeting communications of over 600 people.
She said the charges related to allegations of phone hacking from 3 October 2000 to August 2006. The CPS alleges that more than 600 people were victims.
The maximum penalty for each charge is two years' imprisonment, or a fine, or both – and it is at the judge's discretion whether any sentences would be served concurrently.
Levitt said: "All, with the exception of Glenn Mulcaire, will be charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3 October 2000 to 9 August 2006. The communications in question are the voicemail messages of well-known people and/or those associated with them. There is a schedule containing the names of over 600 people who the prosecution will say are the victims of this offence."
Coulson left the editorship of the News of the World in January 2007 after a journalist and private investigator were convicted of phone hacking. A few months later he was appointed as director of communications for the Conservative party, and followed David Cameron into Downing Street after the 2010 election. The prime minister repeatedly said that Coulson deserved a "second chance", as one of the prime minister's most senior advisers, before Coulson was forced to quit his No 10 role on the grounds that the controversy over phone hacking was distracting him from his job.
Also among the victims named by the CPS were the celebrity chef Delia Smith, the actors Jude Law, Sadie Frost, Sienna Miller, the England footballer Wayne Rooney, Sir Paul McCartney and his former wife Heather Mills, the former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, and the former trade union leader Andrew Gilchrist. Another alleged victim is Prof John Tulloch, who was left bloody and burnt after the worst ever terrorist attacks on the UK mainland in July 2005, targeting London's transport system.
Coulson gave a short statement outside his south London home, saying he would "fight these allegations", and added that he never had done anything to harm the Milly Dowler investigation.
Levitt said police would contact those who the CPS says were victims, and then publish their names.
He said: "I am extremely disappointed by the CPS decision today. I will fight these allegations when they eventually get to court. Anyone who knows me, or who worked with me, would know that I wouldn't, and more importantly that I didn't, do anything to damage the Milly Dowler investigation. At the News of the World we worked on behalf of the victims of crime, particularly violent crime, and the idea that I would sit in my office dreaming up schemes to undermine investigations is simply untrue."
Brooks faces two additional charges over conspiracy to hack Gilchrist's voicemails. She is also accused over the Dowler voicemails, along with Coulson, Kuttner, Miskiw, Thurlbeck and Mulcaire.
Brooks, who became chief executive of News International before resigning from the company last year, faces three counts of conspiring to intercept communications. In addition to the general conspiracy charge, she will face charges relating to the targeting of Andy Gilchrist, the former general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, and Dowler. Allegations about the hacking of the murdered schoolgirl's phone led Murdoch to decide to shut down the News of the World in 2011.
Coulson also faces additional charges relating to Blunkett and Clarke's voicemails, as well as those of Calum Best.
There was no public appearance by Brooks, but through her lawyers Kingsley Napley she issued a statement denying the charges. "I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship," she said. "The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting, not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations."
Miskiw faces nine further charges, the CPS said. Edmondson faces a further 11 charges, Thurlbeck seven, and Weatherup seven.
The others to be charged in relation to phone hacking are Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former assistant editor (news), Greg Miskiw, a former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire.
Mulcaire is charged over the voicemails of four people: Milly Dowler, Gilchrist, Smith and Clarke.
Kuttner faces three charges, while Miskiw faces 10 charges. Edmondson faces 12 charges, Thurlbeck eight, and Weatherup eight. Mulcaire is charged over the voicemails of four people: Milly Dowler, Gilchrist, Smith and Clarke.
To bring charges, the CPS must be satisfied that prosecution is in the public interest, and that there is a realistic prospect of a jury being convinced of the evidence beyond all reasonable doubt.
Rhodri Davies QC, counsel for News International, responded for the company in the last item of business at the Leveson inquiry. He said that "voicemail hacking at the News of the World was profoundly wrong and is deeply regretted by News International" and the company had learned lessons "too severe to be forgotten".
Levitt said she had also considered CPS interim guidelines on the prosecution of journalists, which says that if stories being pursued are in the public interest, that is a factor against charging.
Brooks, a friend of the prime minister to such an extent that they texted each other, issued a statement denying all the charges against her. She is a former editor of the News of the World, and of the Sun, after which she was selected to run Murdoch's UK publishing interests. She said: "I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship. I am distressed and angry that the CPS have reached this decision when they knew all the facts and were in a position to stop the case at this stage. The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting, not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations."
Coulson said he never had done anything to harm the Milly Dowler investigation and would "fight these allegations". "The idea I would sit in my office dreaming up schemes that would undermine investigations is simply untrue," he said.
Thurlbeck also denied the charges. "I will vigorously fight to clear my reputation," he said.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said: "Everybody was very shocked at the revelations of the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone. We said at the time we needed to get to the bottom of what had happened. It is now right that justice takes its course. This is now a matter for the courts."
In the years following the 2007 conviction of one of its journalists for phone hacking the royal household, News International insisted the practice was limited to one rogue reporter.
The charging decisions follow a Scotland Yard investigation that began last year, after police had repeatedly said for over a year that there was no need to reopen the investigation.
In July 2009, the Guardian began running a series of articles that claimed phone hacking was more widespread than previously admitted.
On Monday, police said they believed there were 4,775 potential victims of phone hacking, of whom 2,615 had been notified. The Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson inquiry her force had notified more than 702 people who were "likely" to have been victims.
The CPS has received files from the Met's Operation Weeting team covering 13 individuals, including 11 journalists from the News of the World and Mulcaire.
The CPS said three of the 13 would not face charges, and added they had not made a decision on two people at the request of the police, who want to make further inquiries.
The previous phone-hacking investigation has been criticised as being insufficiently thorough.
The Met says it launched Operation Weeting after receiving "significant new information" from News International on 26 January last year. A total of 24 people including 15 current and former journalists have been arrested as part of the operation.
Police have also detained 41 people under Operation Elveden, an investigation into alleged corrupt payments made to police officers and other public officials.
Seven people have been arrested as part of Operation Tuleta, investigating the scale of computer hacking and other breaches of privacy.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) is a complex piece of legislation and there has been doubt in legal circles about when exactly an offence of phone hacking may be said to have been committed. Prosecutors looking at the evidence gathered by the new police phone-hacking investigation have been working on the basis of a "broad interpretation" of Ripa, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, told the Guardian earlier this month.
This would mean it was not absolutely necessary – for the purposes of bringing a criminal prosecution – for a voicemail message to have been unheard by its intended recipient before it was allegedly hacked into.
Coulson has already been charged in Scotland over alleged perjury, while Brooks has already been charged in England with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
