Rebekah Brooks had final approval on every cash payment as editor of The Sun – The Times

The Times report this morning, of yesterday’s evidence at Kingston Crown Court where Sun journalists are facing trial for charges of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office

 

David Brown

Published at 12:01AM, October 21 2014

Brooks ‘sanctioned all cash payments’

, Kingston crown court was told yesterday.

The trial of six reporters and executives accused of unlawfully paying police officers and soldiers for stories heard that paperwork linking Mrs Brooks to the allegedly unlawful payments had gone missing.

Charlotte Hull, the newspaper’s former news desk assistant, said that Mrs Brooks only signed off contributor payments over ¡Ì1,000 paid through bank transfers but approved all cash payments regardless of the amount. She said: “Any cash payment had to be approved by the editor.”

Mrs Brooks was editor from 2003 to 2009, when she was succeeded by her deputy, Dominic Mohan. The allegedly unlawful payments were made between March 2002 and January 2011.

Charlie Brooks and Kuttner’s Costs Application Rejected in HackingTrial

#451029113 / gettyimages.com

While News UK withdrew, at the last minute, their £10-20 million application for costs for Brooks and other corporately defended clients, the claim by Charlie Brooks and Stuart for their private expenses has also been rejected my Mr Justice Saunders today: his full decision is below. Charlie had claimed half a million for his defence, while Stuart Kuttner £130,000  for his individual costs.

Meanwhile, Private Eye has added more detail to the reason News UK withdrew it’s cost application ten days ago,

 

Those Missing Rebekah Brooks Devices

The CPS have now released images of the ten missing computer devices attributed to Rebekah Brooks.   Computer forensic analysis of the  MacBook recovered by police from the underground car park at Thames Quay, Chelsea Harbour,  contained a data grab from a  wireless router at their Oxfordshire residence.  This  led to an investigation of the missing devices listed below. More evidence on these from my tweets from today.

8 Lessons From the Murdoch Phone Hacking Trial

From my piece in the Daily Beast

After a month of revelations at the phone hacking trial, a clear picture of the sex-obsessed, cut-throat world of Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid journalists has been presented.

The Devil is in the Metadata

Hacking Trial Live Tweets – 27 Nov

Wednesday 27 November 2013

Summary
	The Prosecution Case Continues
		Peter Jukes Bunks Off Early
	Prosecution Evidence on Stuart Kuttner
		Giving evidence – Operation Weeting Detective
		90 million Email Messages Recovered from NI
		10 million NI Email Messages Deleted in 2010

Site Reactivated and Crowd Funded Journalism

There’s now a bit of story about this blog. I was planning to use it to complement my livetweeting of the opening arguments of the Old Bailey Trial, to update and include elements which could only be reported during ‘breaks’ from the court. But as explained in this miserable post, I ran out of money – just when I discovered live tweeting could continue throughout the trial. I prepared to retreat.  Then this happened

Crowdsourcing Live Reporting

So here it is: this blog will provide an archive of my tweets from the trial on a day by day basis, and any other relevant materials that come up in court.

It will also occasionally provide exclusive access to paid subscribers on material relevant to the trial, for easier reference or private discussion