Brooks and Coulson had affair, court hears
Prosecutor Andrew Edis made the disclosure during Coulson’s and Brooks’ trial on phone hacking and other charges, the first major criminal case to go to court in the hacking saga that has shaken Britain’s political, judicial and media elite.
Brooks, Coulson and six other people are now on trial, including Brooks’ current husband Charles. All deny the charges against them, which range from phone hacking to bribing officials for scoops to obstructing police investigations.
Edis said the relationship between Brooks and Coulson was relevant to the hacking case because it showed they trusted one another and shared intimate information.
“Throughout the relevant period, what Mr Coulson knew Mrs Brooks knew, and what Mrs Brooks knew Mr Coulson knew,” Edis said.
Edis said the affair began in 1998 and lasted about six years. If his timeline is correct, the affair ended before Coulson became Cameron’s top communications director, which began after Cameron’s election in 2010. Coulson started working for Cameron in 2007, when Cameron became leader of Britain’s Conservative opposition party.
The affair covered the period when Brooks was the top editor of Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid and Coulson was her deputy. Brooks edited the paper from 2000 to 2003, then went on to edit its sister paper, The Sun, and later became the chief executive of Murdoch’s British newspaper division. Coulson edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007.
The affair covered the period in 2002 when the News of the World hacked the phone of murdered teenager Milly Dowler. Brooks has long denied knowing about that hacking. When the Dowler hacking case became public in 2011, the outrage in Britain was so great that Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old paper.
Edis said a Feb 2004 letter from Brooks showed there was “absolute confidence between the two of them in relation to all the problems at their work”. He said the letter appeared to have been written by Brooks in response to Coulson’s attempt to end the relationship.
“You are my very best friend. I tell you everything. I confide in you, I seek your advice,” Brooks wrote, according to Edis. “Without our relationship in my life I am really not sure I will cope.”
Edis said the affair was uncovered when police searched a computer found at Brooks’ home in 2011 as part of the hacking investigation.
It’s not clear whether the letter was ever sent.
Brooks married soap-opera star Ross Kemp in 2002. They later divorced and she married horse trainer Charles Brooks in 2009.
In his opening arguments yesterday, Edis said News of the World journalists, with consent from the tabloid’s top editors, colluded to hack the phones of politicians, royalty, celebrities and even rival reporters in a “frenzy” to get scoops.
He said the “dog-eat- dog” environment led to routine lawbreaking that was sanctioned by those in charge of the Murdoch-owned tabloid: editors Rebekah Brooks and Coulson.
The trial is expected to last roughly six months.
By Ellen Branagh
Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, confronted former home secretary David Blunkett over an affair he was having with a married woman, the trial into phone hacking has heard.
Coulson — who went on to become David Cameron’s spin doctor — told Mr Blunkett in Aug 2004 he had discovered his affair with Kimberly Quinn from “extremely reliable sources”.
Prosecutor Andrew Edis said the information had in fact come after the newspaper hacked Ms Quinn’s phone.
He told jurors at the Old Bailey that Mr Blunkett recorded the meeting with Coulson on Aug 13, in which the editor advised him that the newspaper was planning to publish a story about the affair.
In the recording, Coulson told Mr Blunkett: “There’s no desire at all to cause you damage, politically or otherwise. We would not want to see anything published that would cause you damage.”
Mr Blunkett, who was not married at the time, replied: “A private life is private. If you don’t have a private life we don’t have anything.”
Recordings of voicemails left on Ms Quinn’s phone revealed the affair, the court heard. They included a message from a “clinic” telling her that she was due to come in for a scan, revealing that she was pregnant.
Mr Edis told the jury: “We say to you that’s very strong evidence against Mr Coulson of involvement in phone hacking at the News of the World.”
Bosses at the News of the World hacked Milly Dowler’s voicemail while her family was living in an “agony of hope” she was still alive.
Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire hacked the 13-year-old’s phone for the newspaper while her parents “yearned for their missing daughter”, prosecutor Andrew Edis told the Old Bailey.
Former editor Rebekah Brooks, her then deputy Andy Coulson, and former managing editor Stuart Kuttner were “criminally involved” in the hacking conspiracy, Edis told their trial.
Describing what the Dowlers were going through at the time, he said: “It is obvious her family through that time would have been in an agony of hope that they might find her and desperately worried.”
Milly disappeared on Mar 21, 2002, and her body was not found until November of that year.
Edis said Kuttner went to police to tell them the newspaper had a voicemail tape which could assist them. “It is good that they gave that information to the police,” he said. “What is less good is that they gave the information to the police on Saturday, when they had had it for several days.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
