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Andy Coulson Rebekah Brooks

Phone-hacking trial: Finance, affairs and Sarah's Law

By James Doleman

February 21, 2014 | 8 min read

Court resumed this morning to hear day two of former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks' defence on the charges facing her.

Rebekah and Charlie Brooks arrive at court

Her counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC began by addressing the argument, put forward by the prosecution, that Brooks must have known about the £92,000 a year contract her newspaper had signed with convicted phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire. In 2001, Brooks told the court, her allocated editorial budget was £23.4m out of a total expenditure by the paper of £161m

By 2003, the last year of her editorship, her budget rose to £30m. There were hundreds of individual payment requests every week the witness confirmed and only large sums over £15,000 or so, were ever been brought to her attention. Asked what part she had in deciding how each department spent it's allocation, Brooks replied "none."

The defence QC then moved on to Mulcaire's contract and Brooks denied she had ever seen it. The witness agreed that a contract this large should have been brought to her attention, but testified that it never was.

In general, however, department heads were free to set their own priorities on how they spent their budget. "They had a great deal of autonomy, it was like running your own business" Brooks told the court.

The witness was asked what sort of payments would come to her attention, Brooks gave the example of a large payment Brooks pointed to the newspaper's campaign for "Sarah's Law" which cost, she said, nearly £2m. She would also be involved with "buy ups" when the paper might pay up to £80,000 for a story especially when a "bidding situation" when newspapers might compete to get an exclusive, such as an interview with a "Big Brother" contestant.

There would be times, Brooks told the court, when she would see freelance pictures and think "gosh, I have to have those" in these situations the cash would come from a contingency budget.

Laidlaw then asked the witness about sources for stories and what knowledge she would have of these.

Brooks said "journalists are very protective of their confidential sources" adding that this was "ingrained in reporters," Sometimes, the witness told the court, "it was obvious who the source was" giving the example of football agents who she said were "notoriously chatty." However, Brooks said if she was told "this is Fred's source and he is usually right" she would accept that. Brooks would, she said "interrogate journalists" over a big story but not ask about "confidential sources."

The defence then returned to the topic of Glenn Mulcaire and asked about the News of the World's use of private investigators. Brooks said it was "quite normal to have private detectives working for the paper" to trace people for stories. The witness gave the example of Sarah's Law when the paper used detectives to trace convicted paedophiles but in general, she said, the editor would not be informed they were being used.

The defence then asked Brooks about her relationship with actor Ross Kemp. The witness said they had met in 1995 and had become engaged in 1996, "quite quickly after we met."

She added: "It was not the easiest of relationships" Brooks agreed and they split up before getting back together after her 30th birthday party. By 2001, Brooks said she and Kemp were discussing getting married and having children and looked near to tears.

Mrs Brooks then asked if she could have a break. Mr Justice Saunders agreed and the court adjourned for 15 minutes.

When the jury returned Jonathan Laidlaw QC continued questioning his client over her relationship with Kemp. In mid 2001 there was a "scare" which ended up with her being taken to hospital Brooks confirmed and by April 2002 she started fertility tests and the couple got married.

However by 2003 the pressure of work on both of them increased, with the war in Iraq leading to Brooks working until 4am. "Things were not easy" the witness confirmed "If Ross was here he would say the same thing, our relationship was a bit of a roller coaster" she added.

Laidlaw then asked Brooks about Andy Coulson. They had worked together, Brooks said, since 1995 and they became good friends. In 1998, 2003 and again in 2006 they had brief "intimate physical relationships."The court was then shown a letter, brought into evidence by the prosecution, from Brooks to Coulson. The witness confirmed that this was written in 2004 and had never been sent as she had "thought better of it." She had came home at night and "had a few glasses of wine" and written it for herself. She had not seen it again until shown it by police after they found it on her computer. "At the time I wrote this I was in a great deal of emotional anguish, Andy and I were incredibly close at the time and I think that comes across" she added. "Affairs by their nature are dis functional" Brooks said and it "complicated" their friendship.

Brooks told the court that she met her husband Charlie in 2007, before which her personal life had "been a car crash for many years." She was close to Kemp she added but, "we were not meant to be." She married Charlie in 2012.

Asked about her daughter, Scarlett, Brooks said that Charlie and she had realised quickly they wanted to be together and have children. The couple had spoken to her doctor and after IVF had failed they explored using a "surrogate mother." Her cousin, Brooks told the court, had agreed to help and they had a daughter, Scarlett, in 2011.

Laidlaw then asked Brooks about the News of the World's campaign for "Sarah's Law."

An eight year old girl, Sarah Paine had went missing in July 2000, Brooks told the court and the paper covered the story. Roy Whiting, a convicted sex offender, was later convicted for her murder. Brooks visited Sarah Paine's parents and later found out about American legislation known as "Megan's Law" which allowed parents to check if there were convicted paedophiles in their area. Brooks launched a campaign to have similar legislation passed in the UK. "It was a controversial campaign" Brooks agreed and "we did make some mistakes." The main criticism the paper had faced was the risk of vigilantism, "and there were some incidents" Brooks mentioned a "riot" in Portsmouth outside the home of a newly released sex offender. There had also been incidents were people were named as "predatory paedophiles" in error.

The witness told the court that Rupert Murdoch had been supportive of the campaign but unhappy they had not been consulted before it was launched. It also led to "a fraught relationship" with some politicians, then home secretary Jack Straw had asked for it to be stopped.

However, Brooks said "readers reacted incredibly positively" so office space was set aside for the campaign and two million badges were made and distributed. "It defined my editorship" Brooks said adding "ten years later the final changes in legislation were made and you can now go to a police station and get the information."

The jury was then shown a folder of 79 pages of News of the World articles relating to the Sarah's Law campaign which were read into evidence, this took around twenty minutes.

Brooks was then shown her contract of employment as editor of the News of the World. The witness told the court that despite the clause making her responsible for financial issues she had no involvement with the "contributor payments system" that was used to pay Mulcaire, as this was an automated process handled from the managing editors office.

Any story that cost more than £1000 had to be reported to them but Brooks denied that she ever saw a list of these.

Andy Coulson Rebekah Brooks

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