Rebekah Brooks was asked to authorise payment to a police officer for stories
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Version 0 of 1. Former Sun editor Rebekah Brooks was asked to authorise a payment to a serving police officer for stories including an article about the mayor of the village next to Prince Charles's country residence, Highgrove, it was alleged at the Old Bailey. An email was sent to Brooks by a Sun journalist in 2007 asking her to approve the cash payment in relation to a story about the mayor of Tetbury in Gloucestershire who was leaving his wife, the prosecution told the jury in the hacking trial on Monday. "I would like to keep it [the payment] anonymous because the contact is a police officer. He has supplied us with numerous tips," the email read, adding that it included a story about "the royal mayor of Tetbury wife swapping". The prosecution did not tell the jury if Brooks had received or responded to the email regarding the police officer. Brooks has been charged with a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office over payments allegedly authorised by her to public officers. She has pleaded not guilty. The jury in the trial were also taken through a number of articles relating to Prince William and Prince Harry during their time at the Sandhurst military academy. They were also shown an online advert from the Sun inviting their fellow trainees to get in touch with the tabloid. "Are you a Sandhurst cadet or officer keen to lift the lid on what really goes on there. If so email features@thesun.co.uk. All correspondence will be treated in the strictest of confidence," said the notice. One tip off about Prince Harry came from someone who worked closely with him during a tour of Afghanistan in December 2007, Brooks was told by a Sun journalist in an email read to the jury. The email told her information was coming from "a guy serving alongside him", revealing Harry was "on the front line on December 24". The journalist tells Brooks: "He is literally dodging bullets and bombs with the best of them and right in the thick of it. He is a very hairy situation and earning his gong." The email went on to explain that the Sun picture desk and newsdesk had agreed to pay the source £1,000 between them. Separately, the jury heard that a Ministry of Defence official, Bettina Jordan-Barber, was linked to 71 stories in the paper. Counsel for Brooks, Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, put it to the Metropolitan police officer handling the investigation against the former News International chief executive, that these stories could largely be categorised as relating to deaths of service personnel, injuries, instances of bullying, misconduct, loss of property and lack of equipment in the battlefield. Laidlaw went through the payment requests linked to Jordan-Barber and pointed out that on two occasions in the period in question the MoD official was on maternity leave. The jury also heard that she was a personal friend of one of the subjects of a Sun story relating to the death of a mentor to Prince William in Afghanistan. Jordan-Barber received payments over a seven year period between 2004 and 2011 but some of these were authorised by other Sun executives and were not linked to Brooks, Laidlaw said. He challenged the records, pointing out that four stories were linked to her while she was having her second baby and asked the police witness whether he knew how these stories might have reached Jordan-Barber's ears. DC Jim Briddon replied it was "six years ago" and it was "very difficult to show the link". The case continues. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |