UK trial hears Murdoch protégée ‘set up team that used hacking’

LONDON, United Kingdom – Rupert Murdoch’s protégée Rebekah Brooks set up an investigations team that was involved in phone hacking while she edited the now-closed News of the World tabloid, a prosecutor told a British court on Thursday, October 31.

The unit employed freelance investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who has admitted numerous charges of phone hacking, at substantial cost, lawyer Andrew Edis said as he set out his arguments for a second day at the start of the high-profile trial.

Brooks and Andy Coulson, her successor as editor of the News of the World who later became Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief, deny charges of conspiring with others to illegally access voicemails.

Prosecutors have previously argued that Brooks, Coulson and ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner “must have known” about the targeting of celebrities such as Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and Jude Law because they controlled the budget.

On Thursday, Edis told jurors that Brooks had set up an investigations unit after she became editor of the Murdoch-owned tabloid in 2000, which involved both Mulcaire and former newsdesk editor Greg Miskiw, who has pleaded guilty to hacking.

Mulcaire, who was paid about £100,000 (116,000 euros, $160,000) a year by the paper from 2001, recently admitted hacking the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Although there were many other victims, the Dowler case proved the tipping point in the scandal and caused Murdoch to shut down the News of the World in July 2011.

“The question is, didn’t anybody ever ask, what are we paying this chap for?” Edis told the jury at London’s Old Bailey court, referring to Mulcaire.

He added: “So what was it that he was doing? Well, we know that he was a phone hacker and we know that he was a good one, and we know that he was an accomplished blagger.”

The court was played a recording of Mulcaire calling a mobile phone company to ask to reset a target’s voicemail – a method he allegedly used to hack phones.

Edis said: “He really knows how it works, he knows the right things to say, and he is quite chatty and she (the phone operator) doesn’t seem at all troubled.”

‘Dog eat dog world of journalism’

The News of the World’s former head of news Ian Edmondson is also charged with conspiracy to hack phones, and jurors were shown emails that Mulcaire sent to him allegedly referring to the practice.

The messages from 2006 concerned two government ministers and Lord Freddie Windsor, a minor member of the royal family.

“Do you think it is likely or even possible that Mr Edmondson did not know what was being done by Mr Mulcaire?” the prosecution lawyer asked.

Edis also questioned what Coulson knew about these stories, as he was editor at the time and they were “big stuff”.

Details were also revealed about the News of the World’s frenzied attempts to get a scoop about an affair between former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his secretary.

Mulcaire used all his tricks while journalists and Coulson themselves tried to hack the phone of Prescott’s special adviser, the prosecutor alleged.

Edis said that “in the dog-eat-dog world of journalism, in a frenzy to get this huge story,” they even hacked the phones of journalists at the rival Mail on Sunday newspaper to find out what they knew.

There are 8 defendants in the trial, which is expected to last 6 months and involves a small army of top lawyers – a dozen of whom are in court each day.

Aside from the hacking charges, Brooks and Coulson are accused of bribing public officials for information along with former royal editor Clive Goodman.

Prosecutors also allege that Brooks tried to conceal evidence about hacking, aided by her husband Charlie Brooks, her personal assistant Cheryl Carter and office security chief Mark Hanna. – Rappler.com