Top Murdoch Executive Denies Hacking Charges
LONDON â€" Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper outpost here, appeared in court on Wednesday and denied five counts relating to the phone hacking scandal that forced the closure of one of the country’s biggest tabloid newspapers and sent shock waves through the press, the police and the political establishment.
Speaking in a firm voice at Southwark Crown Court in London, Ms. Brooks, 45, answered “not guilty†to charges including conspiracies to hack phones, to commit misconduct in public office and to pervert the course of justice.
Her appearance along with other former members of Mr. Murdoch’s News International, a subsidiary of the giant News Corp., which is based in New York, signaled the latest chapter in an unfolding drama that reached an initial climax in July, 2011, when Mr. Murdoch shuttered The News of the World Sunday tabloid after accusations that its reporters hacked into the voice mail of a kidnapped teenager, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.
Ms. Brooks, a former editor of both The News of the World and The Sun, a top-selling tabloid daily newspaper, was accused of conspiracy to hack phones between 2000 and 2006 and conspiracy to “commit misconduct in public office†between 2004 and 2012.
She denied one count of seeking to pervert the course of justice relating to accusations that she and her personal assistant, Cheryl Carter, sought to spirit material away from police investigators in July, 2011.
Ms. Brooks, her husband Charlie and three employees of New International were also accused of trying to hide documents, computers and other electronic equipment from the police. All six people accused of perverting the course of justice entered pleas of not guilty on Wednesday, British news reports said.
Separately, Clive Goodman, the former royal reporter of The News of the World, denied charges on Wednesday of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
All the defendants were freed on bail pending their trials expected later this year.
The scandal at News International inspired an array of investigations into charges that went beyond phone hacking to cover suspected bribery of police officers and other public officials and computer hacking. The police and Parliament launched a series of inquiries and a separate panel chaired by a senior judge, Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, urged that press regulation in Britain be enshrined in law to prevent a recurrence of the scandal.
In the course of the inquiries, Mr. Murdoch’s companies made a series of substantial payouts to scores of people in public life who said their privacy had been invaded.
