Phone-hacking trial: 'Do his phone' police accused of 'serious failure'
The last morning of the week at the trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and others was interrupted by a legal argument, leading to less evidence than usual being submitted. The prosecution opened by a calling a police officer, detective constable John Massey, to the stand to be cross examined by Timothy Langdale QC, for Andy Coulson. Langdale asked the officer to look at timeline documents relating to reality TV celebrity Calum Best, who gave evidence last month.
Trial: Andy Coulson
Langdale told the court that an email from April 2005 already shown to the jury claimed that Best was receiving "inside information" from inside the News of the World leading to Andy Coulson replying "do his phone". An email on 11 May from an Andy Coleman to Stuart Kuttner, the newspaper's managing editor, was shown, listing "unbilled calls" made from showbusiness columnist Rav Singh's, who was friendly with Best, phone which show a number of contacts between Singh and an Aidee Pheelan.
Another internal email from the NotW was given to the jury showing two journalists discussing how Best had been "tipped off" about a story in the paper about his unborn child. Langdale put it to the court that this showed there was a "leak inside the News of the World" and suggested that the "do his phone" email referred to checking Singh's phone records and had nothing to do with hacking.
Coulson's barrister then told the court that the "leak" email had not been initially revealed to the defence and drew the officer's attention to the process of disclosure that should have been followed. He asked the policeman: "How come you missed that?" as it was "obviously significant" and a "relevant and important document". The policeman apologised and said he did not know how the email "had not been picked up".
Langdale called this a "serious failure" by the police and then listed over a hundred other emails which police had decided were irrelevant which had later been found to be material to the case. The disc containing the "leak email", the barrister told the jury, was only given to the defence on the "very morning Best gave evidence", and it was only after the witness finished testifying that his team were given the password to get into the file. The witness then left the stand and the jury was asked to leave the court while a legal matter was discussed.
When the jury returned Mr Justice Saunders took the jury through the "programme for the day" which was to involve schedules and police interviews. He apologised to the jury for it not being "the most riveting evidence" but explained that they "had to go through it sometime". Rebecca Chalkley, for the prosecution, presented the first of these, which was a change in the documented timings of phone calls between Rebekah Brooks in Dubai and the News of the World to take into account of the three-hour time difference between the two countries. The second was a set of documents the jury has already seen giving an "overall chronology of key events relating to the charges".
The court then rose for lunch.
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