Rebekah Brooks 'authorised payments for army stories and William picture'
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Version 0 of 1. Rebekah Brooks personally authorised a series of payments to a military source who spent eight years selling information to the Sun, earning a total of £100,000, an Old Bailey court heard. The jury in the phone-hacking trial was told that Bettina Jordan-Barber worked for the army secretariat in Andover, Hants, where she had been specially vetted to have access to sensitive information so that she could prepare briefings for government ministers and for the Ministry of Defence press office. The court heard that she would collect payments from the Sun in cash through a branch of the Thomas Cook travel agency in Camberley, Surrey. It is agreed by all sides in the case that between January 2004 and August 2012, she received a total of £100,000 from the newspaper. As editor, Rebekah Brooks personally authorised 11 payments totalling £38,000. The jury were shown emails from a Sun reporter who habitually began his messages to Brooks with the words "Morning, boss" or "My dear boss", before summarising two or three stories which had been provided by "my number one military contact" or "my ace military contact". The reporter asked for payments of between £200 and £4,000 for each story, frequently adding that these were "cheap at the price". Brooks replied to 11 requests, agreeing to all of them. Headlines on the stories shown to the jury included "Mucky major's a sex swinger" about an officer using a dating website, "Major feels privates' privates" about an officer accused of sexual assault and "The Lust Post" about a girl cadet who had been sacked for having sex with a sergeant. The biggest single payment, of £4,000, was for a story about an illegal immigrant who had smuggled himself into Sandhurst military academy by hiding next to the toilet in a coach, headlined "Loo Goes There?". The jury was shown internal Sun paperwork which allegedly traced payments being made after Brooks had given her authority. In one case, a newsroom secretary forwarded a request for Jordan-Barber to be paid with the message "Please delete this email afterwards". In one message to Brooks, dated in November 2008, the Sun reporter followed up his request for payments to his military contact with a suggestion that "my very good prison contact" should also be paid £4,000 for supplying a story about an al-Qaida inmate who was training to become a standup comic. Brooks emailed in reply: "Fine." Separately, the jury heard that Brooks authorised a payment of £4,000 for a picture of Prince William dressed in a grass skirt and a bikini top, taken when he went to an end-of-term fancy dress party during his time as a cadet at Sandhurst in June 2006. The court was told that the prince was known to staff at Sandhurst as Officer Cadet Wales and that the organisation of the party in the academy's cricket pavilion was seen as a test of cadets' leadership skills. Guests had been allowed to take photographs. Following the party, a Sun reporter emailed an executive: "My best contact at Sandhurst – who has provided a string of great stuff over a period of months – is offering us a picture of William at a James Bond party dressed as a Bond girl. He is wearing a bikini and an open Hawaiian shirt." The reporter went on to explain that the picture belonged to William's platoon commander, adding "The chap who has the picture wants £4,000 up front … It will open the door for future exclusives and info … I already have the guy with the picture over a barrel because I know his identity." Prosecutor Rebecca Chalkley said the picture was not published, but the Sun ran a "mockup" of it, with William's head superimposed on someone else's body and the headline "Willy in a Bikini" in September 2006. The article claimed "Prince William caused a stir at a Sandhurst 007 bash by dressing as a Bond girl" and added his then girlfriend Kate Middleton attended the party wearing a wetsuit and carrying a toy gun. The executive had forwarded this message to Brooks, asking: "What do you think, Boss?". Brooks had replied: "OK." Jonathan Laidlaw QC, on behalf of Rebekah Brooks, suggested that this email referred to three different people: the Sun's contact at Sandhurst; the platoon commander to whom the picture belonged; and "the chap who has the picture" who was not the platoon commander but "a third man". Detective Inspector David Kennett replied: "There's nothing there to suggest there's a third person." Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, asked DI Kennett whether Brooks had mentioned this "third man" when she was interviewed by police in October 2012. Kennett said: "This is the first time that the concept has ever come to me." The jury heard that in a separate email exchange, in April 2006, the Sun's picture desk had asked Brooks to authorise a payment of £1,000 to the same contact at Sandhurst, explaining that the payment had to be made in cash because "he went in and took a picture off the wall, so he doesn't want it traced back to him". The court was told that there is no record of Brooks authorising that payment. Brooks denies conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. The trial continues on Monday. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |