Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 6 Jan

Monday 6 January 2014

Summary
	The Prosecution Case Continues
		The Trial Resumes after the Christmas Break
	Prosecution Evidence on Counts 6 and 7
		Counts 6 and 7 Evidence for Two weeks.
		Operation Sasha
	Witness – Nick Mays (Archivist at New International)
		Prosecution Counsel questions Nick Mays
		Counsel for Cheryl Carter cross examines Nick Mays

The Prosecution Case Continues
	The Trial Resumes after the Christmas Break
		The jury return to court 12 after a two week break from #hackingtrial Wonder if they followed Justice Saunders suggestion before Christmas
		Saunders said back before the break: “if you decided to be ill, now would be a good time to avail yourself” – or words to that effect
Prosecution Evidence on Counts 6 and 7
	Counts 6 and 7 Evidence for Two weeks.
		Edis for the Crown outlines the plan for the weeks ahead. Next two weeks counts 6 and 7: on Wednesday Susan Palluccio will give evidence
		Pallucio is a slight interruption because she lives in Australia. After counts 6&7 will return to other phone hacking evidence
		A juror has to attend a funeral on Friday so the jury will not sit that day – though the court may still sit for legal argument
		Langdale for Coulson explains he will not attend most of the count 6 and 7 sessions because they don’t concern him
		Bryant Heron for the crown takes the jury back to counts 6 and 7 – conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
		Brooks and Cheryl Carter are charged under count 6 – removing boxes of archived material from News International
		Bryant Heron then explains Count 7 – which involves Brooks, her husband Charlie and NI head of security Mark Hanna for concealing evidence
	Operation Sasha
		The crown have a produced a schedule “Operation Sacha” which details a events around counts 6 and 7. Firstly, the mobile numbers are indexed
		Bryant Heron for the Crown goes through the schedule timeline – which matches date and event: first Cheryl Carter archiving Brooks docs
		Next event: NI circular about Milly Dowler hacking in July 2011.
		Next event shows calls and locations for Carter Brooks conversations from the days after Milly Dowler scandal explodes in July 2011
		The evidence shows caller, duration of call, and ‘cell site’ placing the caller (in this case Carter) at a postcode (in this case Wapping)
		The calls show Carter and Brooks in Wapping till 9.30 on the 7th July 2011 when the closure of NOTW was announced
		The next day on the timeline shows phones attributed to Carter and Brooks at the cell site in Wapping on 8th July 2011
		At 8.53 am on 8/7/11 Carter calls Brooks: Brooks texts back. That evening just before 7pm – Brooks at Wapping cell site, then calls Carter
		Coulson was arrested on the 8th July 2011: that Carter contacts NI archivist Nick Mays. Nick and Cheryl Carter collect boxes
		The police seal the NOTW offices on the day after
		Nick Carter is alleged to be Cheryl Carter’s son. Accompanying him on the pick up of boxes was the partner of another Brooks PA
Witness – Nick Mays (Archivist at New International)
	Prosecution Counsel questions Nick Mays
		The prosecution call NI archivist Nick Mays.
		Nicholas MAYS had been archivist since 2008: he started work at News International in 1994
		Mays explains the nature of the archive: it looks after historic documents of the company and hard copies of records
		Mays said in July 2011 the records were stored at a facility in Enfield
		Mays explains to Bryant Heron for the prosecution that people who call or email to access archives: they are verified for permission
		Mays and jury is taken to an exhibit about this archive process in a new jury bundle
		Mays explains this is a page from his desk diary from Friday 8th July 2011. He confirms it is his handwriting
		An entry relates to phone call from Cheryl Carter 10 am that morning” ‘request PLS return Rebekah’s Notebooks”
		Mays identifies a printout of NI crown records management online ordering system: 8 items ordered.
		The order request from Mays was 11.28 am – delivery on the following Monday by standard procedure
		The 8 items have a ‘track number’, ‘container’ and alphanumeric bar code number for boxes
		The identifying numbers are unique in the records management system the NI archivist explains to the jury at Court 12
		Seven of the eight items were designated to be handed over to Cheryl Carter says Mays
		Mays now identifies another document detailing the storage of 7 boxes of Brooks’ notebooks (from 1995-2007) on 2/09/09 when she became CEO
		There’s a note on this document that Carter told archivist the notebooks belonged to her and another Brooks PA when taken out in July 2011
		An email from Mays at 12.10 on 8th July 11 has a request from Paul Nicholas for historic NOTW material for last issue of Sunday tabloid
		The Mays email asks for the archived boxes to delivered to the basement of Thomas More Square in Wapping.
		Mays explained there was a urgency in getting boxes back, so they considered asking Premiere Moves quicker than the Crown service
		Mays asked for a 2 or 4 hour service on delivery from archives – part of their contract with Crown
		This was actually the first Crown delivery from new archive service to Thomas More Square NI offices
		Mays cannot “recall exact mechanism” for speeding up delivery. Mays said ‘next working day’ moved from ‘greatest degree of urgency’
		The jury is shown some bad photocopies of the exchanges between Mays and Cheryl Carter about the urgency of delivering archive boxes
		CORRECTION: it’s an email exchange with Carter asking archivist Mays for an “urgent phone call” and then “to call her asap”
		Deborah Keegan, another Brooks PA, is also involved in this email exchange
		Another email from Carter – “Hi nick I tried to call you back”
		Carter follows up at 10.59 email to Mays – “Hi nick you call me. I’ve been trying to call you again”
		Early email message didn’t get through to Nick Mays because his name was spelt wrong.
		Bryant May goes to an email in the defence bundle, not contained in the prosecution evidence
		By 12.10 Mays is email Sprake at Crown archives to hurry things up. Mays says also to confirm archive material for NOTW last issue
		Mays then identifies the ‘delivery work order’ from Crown Records management: they show items arrived at Wapping 13.36 on 08/07/11
		The delivery slips for archive show order copies for 7 items all signed by ‘C Carter’
		Mays confirms the alleged Brooks archive boxes were not sealed: dimensions 370 mm, 193 mm, by 256 mm
		Mays says Carter picked the boxes up with another man identified as another PA’s husband
		Mays said Carter said about the seven “they would be permanently withdrawn, not something that had been mentioned before”
		Mays saids Carter said many of the notebooks were hers, or Deborah Keegan’s – another Brooks PA
		Bryant Heron asks Mays the archivist why this note about books was added: May says “because it was different to that on usual transfer list”
		Bryant Heron asks Mays if he called Carter about boxes or instigated their removal: “I did not,” Mays says
		Mays explained that he and Carter had “two other issues” at the time.
		Mays explain another issue was the purchase of “some company silver” by Brooks referred to “Charlies’ Cheque”
		Previous email had said “Charlie’s Cheque is In”: some company silverware was handed over to Mays secure store on Wapping site
		Mays explained that the NI company silver was valued by outsider, and executives were being asked whether they wanted to buy it
		In his NOTEBOOK (not email) Mays became aware that Charlie Brooks wanted to buy some of the old NI corporate silver.
		Previously archivist Mays had emailed Cheryl Carter in June 2011 about the purchase of silver and see whether Charlie’s cheque had come in
		11/07/11 Mays chased up the trolley the boxes were taken away on
		Mays had other items stored by Brooks in local store: large board with messages from Sun, framed front pages, Help for Heroes medal etc
		Mays says this other stored material was immediately resolved. His last contact with Brooks was the day she resigned. Nothing came of that
	Counsel for Cheryl Carter cross examines Nick Mays
		Counsel for Cheryl Carter (almost inaudible I’m afraid) has further questions for NI archivist Nicholas Mays.
		Mr Trevor Burke QC is the counsel for Cheryl Carter: he asks Mays who actually filled in the original request: Mays “it could have been me”
		Burke for Carter tries to ascertain who entered the comments about Cheryl Carter claiming the notebooks were hers
		Burke says the note from Carter is “expressly contradicting the document” that said the notebooks belonged to Brooks
		Mays said he didn’t “correct the record” but merely recorded what Carter said about the contents of the 7 archive boxes
		Mays says the archive documents are available on the intranet or emailed. Sometimes forms filled in by hand writing
		Mays says there was stuff archived from Brooks’ time as Sun editor. The move to CEO combined with move to Thomas More Sq led to less storage
		Mays points out that move to Thomas More Sq didn’t take place till a year after Brooks stored her 7 boxes of notebooks.
		Burke asks May how his computer would assist with a ‘vague request’ for notebooks: but the Carter request was more specific
		Burke notes a ‘contradiction’ in Mays evidence between calling them “Rebekah’s notebooks” used on phone and later description
		Mays disagrees on Carter’s initial request: “I would have written down what she said to me” about Rebekah’s notebook
		Burke then turns to a compliance document from the archiving service from May 2003
		Burke quotes compliance document about labelling etc.
		Burke cites a section on “litigation” and contacting appropriate legal department over archives
		Burke for Carter asks May if lawyer said “don’t return the boxes” you’d do that.
		BREAKING: NI archivist says that lawyers and police did nothing to protect or preserve Brooks archives even after her arrest
		“General tenor,” of archive Burke says “is designed to store important business docs for News International”: Mays agrees
		Mays says they didn’t inspect the contents of the boxes in great detail. He also says he didn’t check the inspection of 7 boxes in question
		Burke for Carter produces an archive box (looks about shoe box size) and asks whether the photo of the box provided is same size?
		An email from Carter says Brooks had a portrait to archive. Mays knew she meant storage.
		Burke asks what happened to Brooks’ portrait: Mays said it went into executive storage with other items like framed prints
		There’s no extensive paperwork for portrait and other items for ‘storage’ unlike the NI archive system.
		“RBs old front pages” is one email from Mays to both PAs Carter and Keegan about NOTW and Sun.
		The portrait Brooks had in storage is referred to, in a May 2011 email as “the JRM portrait”
		Mays explains to Burke that the main News International archive moved to Crown in Enfield in 2010, the historic archive in 2011
		Mays explains he always resisted using company storage space for personal items (unlike records etc.)
		Mays makes a distinction between company property and personal property when it comes to Brooks various stored items
		“You departed with the silver before you got the cheque?” asks Burke. Mays confirms that Charlie Brooks got company silver before payment
		Cheryl emails someone who has retired and defunct email address with news she has a cheque from Charlie Brooks for silver ware
		Carter emails retired Eammon Dyas three days later to speak to her urgently on 7th July 2011 – day of NOTW closure
		Burke counsel for Carter shows jury truncated email from 07/07/11 about NOTW closure.
		These email exchanges between Nick Mays archivist and Cheryl Carter Brooks PA are recovered from Carter’s Blackberry
		Initial chitty specified a Monday 11th delivery: Mays says this may have been an automated response to late Friday request for Brooks’ docs
		The eighth box on May’s list was non urgent request for material for an Avril Russell.
		Burke suggests that Mays only made the Brooks’ order ‘urgent’ because of other NOTW archive material for last issue: He says “No I did not.”
		Mays recalls one man being present for collection of 7 boxes. He cannot recalled being introduced or his name (Gary Keegan it is alleged)
		Burke then cites May’s follow up email to Carter about the “missing trolley”: Carter says she spent weekend reading 7 years of news cuttings
		NI archivist Mays said he did not know Carter wrote a beauty column, and did not link the boxes with her career as journalist
		Cross examination by Burke will continue for 30 mins when court resumes tomorrow morning at 10 am. Bye till then

Note: All the defendants deny all the charges. The trial continues.

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