Ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and former News of the World editor Andy Coulson had an affair for at least six years, hacking trial jury hears

 

• Prosecution is setting out case on second day of six-month hacking trial
• Letter found on Brooks' computer reveals long affair with Coulson
• Glenn Mulcaire conned 02 network into resetting someone else's password
• Old Bailey told he was asked to carry out years of similar 'tasks' by NotW
• Tessa Jowell, John Prescott and Lord Frederick Windsor were targets
• Tabloid 'hacked the opposition' including two Mail on Sunday reporters

By Martin Robinson
Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were having a secret affair for at least six years, the Old Bailey heard today.
Police investigating phone hacking discovered they had been lovers from around 1998 after finding a letter Mrs Brooks wrote to Mr Coulson in February 2004.
Their six-year affair was revealed to the court because the prosecution said it took place at the height of hacking at the Sunday tabloid.
The note on her computer was Brooks' reaction to Coulson's decision to break-off the romance, the court heard, but it is not known if it was ever sent.
'The fact is you are my very best friend, I tell you everything, I confide in you, I seek your advice, I love you, care about you, worry about you, we laugh and cry together,' Ms Brooks wrote.
'In fact without our relationship in my life I am not sure I will cope'.
Andy Coulson married his wife Eloise in 2000 and Brooks married Eastenders star Ross Kemp in 2002, while the court heard they were having an affair with each other.

Lovers: Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson arrive at the Old Bailey for the second day of their trial today, which heard they had a six-year affair

Husband: Ms Brooks is in the dock with partner Charlie Brooks, who is accused of perverting the course of justice. They married in 2009

The prosecution said the fact they were lovers is important because 'in this period what Mrs Brooks knew, Mr Coulson knew, and what Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew', Andrew Edis QC said.'

More...

• Brooks 'at the helm of six-year campaign of phone hacking that targeted politicians, pop stars and royals'

THE LETTER BROOKS WROTE TO COULSON AT END OF AFFAIR

'There are a hundred things which have happened since Saturday night that I would normally share with you, some are important, most trivial', she wrote.
'The fact is that you are my very best friend, I tell you everything, I confide in you, I seek your advice, I love you, care about you and worry about you.
'Without our relationship in my life, I really don't think I will cope.
'I am fortunate to be with you, but bearing in mind the rules, you will not know how I am doing and vis a vis.'
She wrote that finding out about Coulson's life 'fills me with absolute dread'
Referring to rules of their future relationship Coulson has set out, she wrote: 'Email if there is anything important happens - I don't understand this, we are either there for each other or we are not.
'How will this work for you and manifest itself.
'Do we limit contact until we absolutely have to?'
'Obviously I can't discuss my worries, concerns, problems at work with you anymore or vis a vis.
'I assume until I hear otherwise we will keep our professional relationship at a minimum and avoid if possible without being awkward.'

Mr Edis said: 'The point that I'm going to make in relation to that letter is that over the relevant period, what Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew too. And what Mrs Brooks knew, Mr Coulson knew too - that's the point.
'Because it is clear from that letter that, as of February 2004, they had been having an affair which had lasted at least six years.
Mr Edis told the court that the pair had been having an affair dating back to around 1998, spanning the period covered by their phone-hacking conspiracy charge.
The court heard that the letter - apparently written by Brooks in response to Coulson trying to end the affair - included a declaration of her love for her colleague.
Mr Edis told jurors he was not revealing the affair to deliberately intrude into their privacy or to make a 'moral judgment'.

'But Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson are charged with conspiracy and, when people are charged with conspiracy, the first question a jury has to answer is how well did they know each other? How much did they trust each other?
'And the fact that they were in this relationship which was a secret means that they trusted each other quite a lot with at least that secret and that's why we are telling you about it.'
He said the revelation was likely to attract a 'great deal of publicity' and may draw some 'unfair, unkind and unnecessary' comment.
Jurors in the trial of former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson today heard a recording of the tabloid's £100,000-a-year 'blagger' getting a voicemail password reset by a mobile phone company.

Famous: Eastenders star Ross Kemp and Rebekah Wade married in 2002 but later divorced in 2009

Couple: Andy Coulson and his wife Eloise leave the Old Bailey yesterday, which heard today that he was allegedly having an affair with Rebekah Brooks after they married

In the brief recording Glenn Mulcaire, who has already pleaded guilty to charges of phone hacking, contacts O2 to ask for a voicemail reset - a method it is alleged could be used to access people's messages.

Evidence: Glenn Mulcaire has pleaded guilty to phone hacking and the jury heard examples of his blagging in court today

Brooks and her number two Andy Coulson have been accused of being at the heart of the hacking conspiracy because they 'held the purse strings' at the News of the World, the jury heard.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC told the court today: 'He (Mulcaire) gives the woman who works for the company a network password, albatross, which he has got from somewhere.

'He really knows how it works, he knows the right things to say, and he is quite chatty and she doesn't seem at all troubled.'
Continuing his case opening, which started yesterday at the Old Bailey, Mr Edis said other than a few 'taskings' by the News of the World in 1999, the first dated tasking of Mulcaire by the newspaper was January 8, 2001
Yesterday the Old Bailey heard Rebekah Brooks presided over a six-year campaign of phone hacking which targeted politicians, pop stars and royals.
The former News of the World editor and her then deputy Andy Coulson allegedly sanctioned ‘thousands upon thousands’ of voicemail interceptions.
The court heard that illegal phone tapping was so widespread that lieutenants at the now-defunct tabloid even used a special hotline for ‘do-it-yourself hacking’ and targeted rival journalists.
It was also revealed for the first time that three former news editors at the newspaper, Neville Thurlbeck, 52, Greg Miskiw, 63, and James Weatherup, 57, have all pleaded guilty to their part in the hacking plot.
In a ‘pervasive’ phone hacking culture at the paper, the voicemails of members of the Royal Family were intercepted, including Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, former private secretary to Princes William and Harry, was also targeted.
Celebrities who were hacked include Sir Paul McCartney and his then wife Heather Mills, as well as actor Jude Law and his girlfriend at the time, Sienna Miller.

 

Prosecution opening: Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson watch Andrew Edis QC tell the jury yesterday that the pair knew about phone hacking because they 'held the purse strings' at the News of the World

First day: From left, Ian Edmondson, Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, Clive Goodman, Cheryl Carter, Charlie Brooks and Mark Hanna listen to the prosecution's opening yesterday afternoon

Defendants: Former news editor at the News of the World Ian Edmondson (top left), former royal editor Clive Goodman (top right), Brooks's PA Cheryl Carter (bottom left) and managing editor Stuart Kuttner (bottom right)

Allegations: Mark Hanna, the former head of security at News International, is accused of conspiring with Mrs Brooks and her husband Charlie to pervert the course of justice

Yesterday it emerged for the first time that associates of model Kate Moss, singer Will Young and actress Joanna Lumley were targeted too.
Glenn Mulcaire, the newspaper’s phone hacking specialist, also recorded voicemail messages belonging to the former home secretary David Blunkett and the British nanny Louise Woodward, who was convicted of killing a child in the US in the 1990s.

Victim: The Old Bailey heard that Brooks and Coulson would have known about the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone

Mulcaire, 43, who was paid £100,000 a year by the paper to lead the hacking, has also admitted intercepting the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s voicemails.
In an earlier hearing, he admitted three counts of conspiracy to commit phone hacking after police found ‘thousands of thousands of pages’ of notes relating to his victims.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis, QC, said:‘They were responsible for enormous payments made to Mr Mulcaire. They were party to a conspiracy to ensure that was carried out.’
He told the jury they had to decide ‘quite a simple issue: there was phone hacking – who knew?’ 
He went on: ‘The News of the World was a Sunday paper, that means it was published once a week.
‘It wasn’t War and Peace, it wasn’t an enormous document – it was the sort of document, that if editing, you could actually take an interest in the contents without too much trouble.
'The management must have known where some of these stories had come from'.
And today Mr Edis said Mulcaire's contract would also have been known about by management.
'It was not hidden from anybody that he was being paid all that money because of course the money has to go through an accounting system, it is budgeted for, it's seen.
'The question is, didn't anybody ever ask, what are we paying this chap for?'
He added: 'So what was it that he was doing? Well, we know that he was a phone hacker and we know that he was a good one, and we know that he was an accomplished blagger.'
The court heard that the police investigation into phone hacking in 2011 was sparked by the discovery of three emails that News International gave to officers.

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, left, has admitted intercepting voicemails, as has former NotW chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, it emerged yesterday

Guilty: Former News of the World journalist James Weatherup (left) and his news editor Greg Miskiw (right) have also been accused of breaking the law by intercepting voicemails, the Old Bailey heard

The messages were from Mulcaire to Edmondson, and it is alleged they were about hacking phones linked to Tessa Jowell and David Mills; Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent; and an adviser to John Prescott.
The first message, on April 20 2006, referred to Jowell and Mills, at a time when Mills had been accused of involvement in bribery linked to former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi.
It said: 'Substantial traffic both ways, also looks like she's selling up.'
Mr Edis told the jury: 'You're going to have to decide in Mr Edmondson's case what you make of that, whether it can possibly mean anything at all other that 'I've been phone-hacking Tessa, and this is what I've found out'.'
Another message, from April 27 2006, referred to Lord Frederick Windsor, and contained a reference to 'press * and Pin', which prosecutors say was Mulcaire telling Edmondson how to hack a phone.
The third email refered to an adviser to former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott, who was at the centre of a publicity storm because he was accused of having an affair.

Target: The hacking trial today heard how phones linked to Tessa Jowell and husband David Mills (pictured) were repeatedly hacked by Mulcaire and management allegedly knew about it

Prosecutors claim that Edmondson must have known that Mulcaire was hacking phones.
Referring to the alleged targeting of MP Ms Jowell and her husband Mr Mills, Mr Edis said: 'We know what Mr Mulcaire was doing, he was phone hacking.
'Look how much contact there is at this time between Mr Edmondson and Mr Mulcaire.
'Do you think it is likely or even possible that Mr Edmondson did not know what was being done by Mr Mulcaire?
'We know that Edmondson was interested in Tessa Jowell, he was investigating Tessa Jowell, and we know that he was in communication with Mr Mulcaire.
'We know that Mr Mulcaire hacked Tessa Jowell's phone and listened to her messages.'

End of an era: The last edition of the News of the World in July 2011 after the newspaper was closed over the phone hacking scandal

Mr Edis went on: 'This was an important story.
'It wasn't something that was stuck after the letters page, this was big stuff.'
The prosecutor said it was the editor's duty to ask 'How do I know this information is true?' when stories were going to appear in the newspaper.
'Mr Coulson was editor at this time,' he told the jury.
The jury heard that the newspaper went about trying to get a 'scoop' about Lord Prescott's affair with his secretary Tracey Temple in April 2006.

Deputy Prime Minister: Records showed that Mulcaire tried to hack phones linked to Lord Prescott to get details about his affair with his secretary in 2006

Mr Edis described a series of phone calls, emails, and phone hacks that he said was Mulcaire trying to get information at the behest of the NotW.
The jury also heard that journalists at the paper, including James Weatherup - who has already pleaded guilty to hacking charges - and Coulson, discussed trying to contact Ms Temple to offer her £100,000 for her story.
Records showed that they then tried to hack the phone of Lord Prescott's special adviser Joan Hammell.
The court was told the NotW hacked journalists from rival paper the Mail on Sunday - Dennis Rice and Sebastian Hamilton - to find out what information they had on the story.
'This was all about finding out how the competition were getting on with the story because, of course, you don't want to be scooped,' Mr Edis said.
'One nice easy cheap way of finding out what they know is to hack their phone so that the competition don't get to steal a march on you.
'In the dog eat dog world of journalism, in a frenzy to get this huge story or try to get something better or at least as good as what everyone else has got, that's what you do, perhaps, if you are Ian Edmondson. You hack the competition.'
Mr Edis said that when the News of the World found out the Mail on Sunday was hoping to run the story, the paper concluded: 'We are going to spoil that by doing our own story.
'We know how they were planning to do the spoiler - it was by hacking other journalists.'
Brooks and Coulson are accused of conspiracy to intercept voicemail communications with former head of news Ian Edmondson, 44, and ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73, between October 2000 and August 2006.
Brooks is also charged with two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office. She faces two allegations of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice – one with former PA, Carter.
The second count alleges that Brooks, her husband Charlie and former head of security Hanna conspired together with others to pervert the course of justice by trying to conceal documents, computers and electronic equipment from police.
Coulson and Goodman are accused of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office by paying for a Royal household phone directory. All eight deny the charges.
The case continues.

Prosecution: Payments to private eye Mulcaire 'proves management knew about hacking'

Claims: Andrew Edis QC said today that management like Rebekah Brooks controlled finances so would have known about payments to hacker Mulcaire

Prosecution QC Andrew Edis claimed today that budget cuts at the News of the World during the hacking scandal meant that Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson would have known about payments to 'blagger' Glenn Mulcaire.
The Old Bailey also heard that the 'pressure' from the top to find exclusive stories for the Sunday tabloid forced journalists to 'stray into crime'.
Mr Edis told jurors: 'You're going to have to form a view about how much pressure there was on journalists at the NotW to get stories, so that they strayed sometimes into crime in order to do it.
'And also how much the editor was involved in the whole process.'
The newspaper had a successful year in 2004, but management were not happy with the performance in 2005, the court heard.
Jurors were read an email from Kuttner to Miskiw in September 2000, warning him that he was 43% overspent nine weeks into the financial year.
Messages were sent to senior staff in June 2001, saying they would have to get 'formal approval from the editor for spending outside their limits'.
They were warned that there would be 'the most severe consequences' if they exceeded their budgets.
Mr Edis said that Brooks, Kuttner and Coulson were working together to rein in spending.
He said: 'We can see the three of them operating as a management team, trying to keep these groups of journalists within budget.'
Brooks' instructions about controlling spending were reiterated that month, and she wrote to Miskiw and former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck telling them that any payments over £1,000 would have to be authorised by herself, Kuttner or Coulson.
Mr Edis told the court that Kuttner warned them he would be 'unavoidably tough', saying: 'The palmy days of indulgence are over.'
The prosecutor told the court: 'That's the point which we say generates the inference that they must have known what was going on with Mr Mulcaire.
'What on earth do they think they are doing if they did not know? The money was going out of the paper. Where was it going? Did they care? Well, yes, they did.'
The court heard that in August 2001, when rules about how regular contributors were paid changed, Mulcaire was a 'major exception'.
Mr Edis said: 'If people knew that Mr Mulcaire was committing crimes on behalf of the NotW or engaged in unacceptable activity on behalf of the NotW, then they would quickly understand that he had to be deniable.'
Jurors were told that Kuttner authorised 221 separate payments totalling £413, 527 to Mulcaire 'over the years', amounting to 72 per cent of what Mulcaire earned during that time.