Phone Hacking: Rebekah Brooks in court, Paul Flattley in jail and Virginia Wheeler in need
FACE of the day: former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has pleaded not guilty to charges related to phone hacking.
At Southwark Crown Court, Brooks sats with her husband Charlie Brooks, and a number of former colleagues from the dead News of the World.
She pleaded not guilty to fie charges – three conspiracies to hack phones, corrupt public officials and pervert the course of justice.
Mr Brooks pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Other in the dock, who all pleaded not guilty to every charge laid before them were: James Weatherup, Stuart Kuttner, Mark Hanna, Lee Sandell, David Johnson, Paul Edwards, Cheryl Carter and Clive Goodman.
In other news, Paul Flattley, 30, has been jailed for offering to spy on Kate Middleton for the Sun. He was policeman in the Kensington and Chelsea area.
His crimes earned him £8,000 for 39 separate pieces of information over three years between 2008 and 2011.
He also gave the address and other personal details of a 15-year-old girl who had died of a drugs overdose and claimed it “could be as big as the Leah Betts tragedy”.
He was ordered on March 27 to serve two years behind bars after admitting conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. However details of his case can only be reported today after the Crown dropped its case against Flattley’s co-defendant Virginia Wheeler, 34, his reporter contact at The Sun.
Mark Bryant-Heron, prosecuting, told Southwark Crown Court this afternoon that a prosecution was not in the public interest for medical reasons.
He said that a nolle prosequi, a formal notice of abandonment, had been obtained from the Attorney-General, Dominic Grieve.
James Wood, QC, for Ms Wheeler, said: “Had it not been for these matters, I would like to put on the record that Ms Wheeler would have vigorously contested these proceedings.”
More on how the Sun protects its own here.
Posted: 5th, June 2013 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
