phone hacking

[HowardKennitby]

Just seen that Coulson and Brooks have been charged over this.

[jno]

that'll be nice (though they haven't actually been charged yet).

[ummmm]

I thought they been charged. Did I mishear?

[jno]

"Eight people, including Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, will face a total of 19 charges relating to phone hacking, the Crown Prosecution Service has said."

I can't see any report that they've actually been charged yet, but it may have happened.

[LazyGun]

I think the recent media announcement is a statement by the CPS of intent to charge the named individuals on charges of conspiracy /phone hacking, using RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) legislation.

Coulson and Brookes have already been charged with seperate offences relating to perjury ( Coulson, Scotland) , and comspiracy to pervert the course of justice (Brookes)

[bazwillrun]

The CPS said that they believe there is a realistic chance of a conviction against eight of the thirteen

[FredPuli43]

Any bets on the outcome ?

What has Brookes supposed to have done? He seems pretty peripheral to all this. Is it suggested that he knew that his wife was a party to destroying evidence and helped her directly in doing so or that he merely obstructed the police by trying to cover up her involvement ?

Coulson must have a run on the perjury charge. He is accused of lying when he claimed that phone hacking didn't happen much, when it was happening a lot, as he well knew. It's not clear how that evidence was material in the proceeding in which he gave it, which it would have to be for the offence to be proved. The 'proceeding' was a perjury trial where the defendant was proved to have lied as the complainant in a libel action where the issue was his immoral and improper behaviour. How the answer on phone hacking was relevant to the issue of the complainant perjuring himself by falsely denying his own improper behaviour, is not obvious. The best that could be said is that a truthful answer would have gone to damaging the credibility of the witness, but that argument is a bit thin for saying that it was relevant in the circumstances. Whether hacking was prevalent or not doesn't really relate to the libel claim.