Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are among eight people who will face a total of 19 charges related to phone hacking.
Brooks, former chief executive of News international and Coulson, ex-editor of the News of the World and former aide to David Cameron are among a group of eight facing charges in connection with hacking the voicemail messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Brooks and Coulson are among a group of seven former News of the World journalists to be charged over phone hacking.
Those charged were Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former news editor, Greg Miskiw another former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Rebekah Brooks faces three charges in relation to the alleged hacking of phones belonging to Milly Dowler and former Fire Brigades Union boss Andrew Gilchrist, Crown Prosecution Service legal adviser Alison Levitt QC has said in a statement.
Levitt said: “All, with the exception of Glenn Mulcaire, will be charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3 October 2000 to 9 August 2006. The communications in question are the voicemail messages of well-known people and/or those associated with them. There is a schedule containing the names of over 600 people who the prosecution will say are the victims of this offence.”
Rebekah Brooks issued a statement earlier today in response to the announcement, in which she denied the charges,
“I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship. I am distressed and angry that the CPS have reached this decision when they knew all the facts and were in a position to stop the case at this stage. The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations.”
Prosecutors, who say that they have evidence to prove that there was a criminal conspiracy at the News of the World have said other hacking victims include former deputy prime minister John Prescott, former Labour home secretaries David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell.
Additonal victims of alleged hacking named in connection with the charges were former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, television stars Abi Titmuss and John Leslie, chef Delia Smith, actors Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Sienna Miller, footballer Wayne Rooney, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Sir Paul McCartney and his former wife Heather Mills and Professor John Tulloch, a victim of the 7/7 bombings.
Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks to be charged over phone hacking
Brooks, former chief executive of News international and Coulson, ex-editor of the News of the World and former aide to David Cameron are among a group of eight facing charges in connection with hacking the voicemail messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Brooks and Coulson are among a group of seven former News of the World journalists to be charged over phone hacking.
Those charged were Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former news editor, Greg Miskiw another former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
Rebekah Brooks faces three charges in relation to the alleged hacking of phones belonging to Milly Dowler and former Fire Brigades Union boss Andrew Gilchrist, Crown Prosecution Service legal adviser Alison Levitt QC has said in a statement.
Levitt said: “All, with the exception of Glenn Mulcaire, will be charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3 October 2000 to 9 August 2006. The communications in question are the voicemail messages of well-known people and/or those associated with them. There is a schedule containing the names of over 600 people who the prosecution will say are the victims of this offence.”
Rebekah Brooks issued a statement earlier today in response to the announcement, in which she denied the charges,
“I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship. I am distressed and angry that the CPS have reached this decision when they knew all the facts and were in a position to stop the case at this stage. The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations.”
Prosecutors, who say that they have evidence to prove that there was a criminal conspiracy at the News of the World have said other hacking victims include former deputy prime minister John Prescott, former Labour home secretaries David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell.
Additonal victims of alleged hacking named in connection with the charges were former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, television stars Abi Titmuss and John Leslie, chef Delia Smith, actors Jude Law, Sadie Frost and Sienna Miller, footballer Wayne Rooney, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Sir Paul McCartney and his former wife Heather Mills and Professor John Tulloch, a victim of the 7/7 bombings.