Brooks and Coulson charged with alleged phone hacking

All eight are charged with conspiring to intercept communications  between 3 October 2000 and 9 August 2006.

The CPS said that Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, is to face two charges, one of which relates to the alleged hacking of voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

Coulson, former editor of the now defunct News of the World newspaper, is also charged with accessing the phone of Dowler, along with three other charges.

The police launched an investigation after details emerged of phone hacking at the newspaper last year.

A statement from the CPS said:

The eight who will be charged are: Rebekah Brooks; Andrew Coulson; Stuart Kuttner; Glenn Mulcaire; Greg Miskiw; Ian Edmondson; Neville Thurlbeck, and James Weatherup.

They will face a total of 19 charges in all. All, with the exception of Glenn Mulcaire, will be charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3 October 2000 to 9 August 2006. The communications in question are the voicemail messages of well-known people and / or those associated with them. There is a schedule containing the names of over 600 people whom the prosecution will say are the victims of this offence.

 In addition, each will face a number of further charges of conspiracy unlawfully to intercept communications, as follows:

Rebekah Brooks will face two additional charges:

1. The first relates to the voicemails of the late Milly Dowler
2. The second to the voicemails of Andrew Gilchrist

Andrew Coulson will face four additional charges, relating to the following victims:

1. Milly Dowler
2. The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
3. The Rt Hon Charles Clarke, and
4. Calum Best

Stuart Kuttner will face two additional charges, relating to:

1. Milly Dowler and
2. The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP

Greg Miskiw will face nine further charges, relating to the following victims or groups of victims:

1. Milly Dowler
2. Sven-Goran Eriksson
3. Abigail Titmuss and John Leslie
4. Andrew Gilchrist
5. The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
6. Delia Smith
7. The Rt Hon Charles Clarke
8. Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Sienna Miller, and
9. Wayne Rooney

Ian Edmondson will face a further 11 charges, relating to the following victims or groups of victims:

1. The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
2. The Rt Hon Charles Clarke
3. Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Sienna Miller
4. Mark Oaten
5. Wayne Rooney
6. Calum Best
7. the Rt Hon Dame Tessa Jowell MP and David Mills
8. the Rt Hon Lord Prescott
9. Professor John Tulloch
10. Lord Frederick Windsor
11. Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills

Neville Thurlbeck will face a further seven charges in relation to the following victims or groups of victims:

1. Milly Dowler
2. Sven-Goran Eriksson
3. The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
4. The Rt Hon Charles Clarke
5. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
6. Mark Oaten
7. The Rt Hon Dame Tessa Jowell MP and David Mills

James Weatherup will face a further seven  charges in relation to the following victims or groups of victims:

1. The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP
2. The Rt Hon Charles Clarke
3. Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Sienna Miller
4. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt
5. Wayne Rooney
6. The Rt Hon Lord Prescott
7. Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills

For legal reasons, Glenn Mulcaire does not face the first of these charges. However, he will face four charges, relating to:

1. Milly Dowler
2. Andrew Gilchrist
3. Delia Smith
4. The Rt Hon Charles Clarke

 

The following statement was issued today on behalf of Rebekah Brooks:

"I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship. I am distressed and angry that the CPS have reached this decision when they knew all the facts and were in a position to stop the case at this stage.

"The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime.  I will vigorously defend these allegations."

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This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk