REBEKAH Brooks and Andy Coulson, plus six others, face a total of 19 charges relating to phone hacking, the Crown Prosecution Service announced yesterday.
The two ex-editors of the News of the World are to be charged in connection with the accessing of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone messages.
Brooks, who is also ex-Chief Executive of Murdoch’s News International, faces three charges relating to the alleged accessing of phones belonging to Milly Dowler, as well as former FBU General Secretary Andy Gilchrist, CPS legal adviser Alison Levitt QC announced.
In response, Brooks claimed in a statement: ‘I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship.’
Brooks already also faces three charges of perverting the course of justice arising from the investigation into phone hacking, charges she has denied.
Coulson, prime minister Cameron’s former head of communications, faces four charges linked to accessing the phone messages of Milly Dowler, as well as former Labour home secretaries David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and Calum Best, the son of the late footballer George Best.
Coulson was NoW editor between 2003 and 2007. He later became Cameron’s press spokesman, but quit in January 2011.
