CCTV clips show Brooks material being hidden from police, hacking trial hears

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/14/phone-hacking-trial-cctv-footage-brooks

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Prosecutors in the phone-hacking trial have released CCTV clips which they said revealed that Rebekah Brooks, her husband Charlie and their security adviser, Mark Hanna, were hiding material from police who were planning to search the Brooks's London flat in the summer of 2011.

The clips, from nine different cameras, were played to the jury who have been told that the alleged plot ended with "an accident that was rather bad luck for those involved" – when a cleaner found some of the material, with the result that it was handed over to police.

The Crown also used text messages and "cell site" records, which track the movement of mobile phones, in their attempt to reconstruct 26 hours in the life of the Brooks couple, beginning a few minutes after noon on Sunday 17 July 2011 when Rebekah Brooks was arrested at Lewisham police station in south London.

The first CCTV images showed Charlie Brooks at 12.14 emerging from the lift in the basement car park beneath the couple's flat at Chelsea Harbour, west London, clutching a brown Jiffy bag and a laptop computer, and moving out of shot in the direction, the Crown says, of a green rubbish bin. Within less than a minute, he is seen walking back to the lift empty-handed.

At 12.15, the jury were told, Charlie Brooks texted an external security consultant, William Geddes, who three minutes later then called the security chief, Mark Hanna. An hour passed until 13.30 when, according to cell site data, a phone attributed to Hanna started moving from News International's old office in Wapping towards Chelsea Harbour, calling Charlie Brooks at 14.03. The second set of images shows Mark Hanna at 14.06 driving a black Range Rover into the basement car park at Chelsea Harbour, where he is met by Charlie Brooks. Hanna parks; Brooks passes him a brown briefcase and appears to gesture towards the rubbish bin area.

Hanna walks out of shot towards the bin area and then returns soon afterwards carrying a Jiffy bag and a laptop as well as the brown briefcase.

Less than an hour later, at 15.03, police started to search the Brooks's flat, while at 17.04, cameras in the car park caught the police search team leaving, carrying computers, boxes and bags.

Charlie Brooks and Mark Hanna then exchanged three texts and one phone call, the jury were told. Over the following four hours Hanna was in contact by phone and text with other members of his security team including Daryl Jorsling.

A fourth set of images, beginning at 21.29, showed Jorsling driving into the basement car park, taking a black bin bag from his car, walking out of shot to the area of the green rubbish bin and then walking back empty handed. The court has previously heard that the bin bag allegedly contained a brown briefcase, material that News International security thought "was safe to bring back".

At 21.30, the jury heard, Jorsling made a 15-second call to Charlie Brooks. CCTV images timed at 21.31 then showed Jorsling also taking two pizza boxes out of his car and handing them to a man who has been named only as Palmer, who then takes the lift from the apartment block to the car park and then back up into the building.

Jorsling at 21.37 texted his team leader, Dave Johnson: "Broadsword calling Danny Boy. Pizza delivered and chicken is in the pot." Johnson replied: "Hah! Fucking amateurs" and suggested they should have used a "dead letter box" or a "brush contact on the riverside". The court has previously heard that the pizza delivery was allegedly part of a cover story.Jorsling texted again to say he would see him in the morning, "wherever it may be, ha ha" to which Johnson replied: "Another fucking magical mystery tour."

In the small hours of the morning, at 00.31, Rebekah Brooks returned from Lewisham police station, and was caught on CCTV as she hugged Charlie.

The cameras were then dark until Monday morning when, having recorded the Brookses at 10.28 being driven away to their solicitors, they caught the car park cleaner, Mr Nascimento, driving his red mini-tractor, in a scene which the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said was "a bit like the Magic Roundabout", as he hooked four green wheely bins onto the back, like train carriages.

At 10.45, the CCTV recorded him loading a black bin bag into one of the bins behind his tractor – the bag which, the Crown alleges, had been left the previous night by Daryl Jorsling. The court has previously heard that Mr Nascimento subsequently alerted his superiors.Finally, the cameras captured the scene at 12.48 as Charlie Brooks arrived back from the solicitors and went to the bin area while Rebekah Brooks waited by the car. Over the next half an hour, with the Brookses upstairs in their flat, the driver walks backwards and forwards to the bin area before going out to find Daryl Jorsling outside.

At 13.11, the two of them meet Charlie Brooks and a besuited official from the Chelsea Harbour complex, identified only as Mr Perkins. Mr Perkins is seen walking off camera.

By 14.10, the jury was told, police had been called and had taken possession of a brown briefcase and a laptop. Or, as one of the security men texted later that afternoon: "Filth all over the underground car park ref Pizzagate."

Rebekah Brooks, Charlie Brooks and Mark Hanna deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice by concealing computers and other material from police.

The trial continues.

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