May 15th, 2012
Former News International Chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been
charged with perverting the course of justice, as part of the. Brooks has been charged along with
several others, including her husband Charlie, and four former members of News International staff, in relation to the destruction of evidence and concealing documents and computers from police. In a statement Brooks, who faces three charges, declared the decision “weak and unjust”.
July 28th, 2011
The Guardian has
revealed that the News of the World hacked Sara Payne’s phone, which Rebekah Brooks had given her as a gift.
Payne had previously been told, accurately, that her name did not appear in Glenn Mulcaire’s notes, but her personal details were found there on Tuesday. The News of the World used its
final issue to congratulate itself for its campaign for Sarah’s law.
Sara Payne herself wrote a column for the farewell edition, describing the News of the World reporters as her “good and trusted friends.” Tom Watson MP has decried this as “a whole new low”; and Sara Payne has said that she is “absolutely devastated and deeply disappointed.”
Read Brian Cathcart’s writing on the phone hacking scandal
here.