Brooks and Coulson vow to fight charges

Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have vowed to fight the phone-hacking charges imposed on them by the UK's the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mrs Brooks today declared she was not guilty of phone hacking.

The former News International chief executive said she was “distressed and angry” at the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to charge her.

Mrs Brooks, a former editor of the News of the World, said the charge concerning murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was “particularly upsetting”.

She is among eight people who will face charges relating to phone hacking, the CPS announced today.

Charges against her include one relating to allegedly accessing the voicemails of Milly Dowler, as well as those of former trade union boss Andrew Gilchrist.

In a statement, she said: “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.”

David Cameron’s former spin doctor Andy Coulson said today he was “extremely disappointed” by the decision to prosecute him over alleged phone hacking.

Speaking outside his home in south-east London, the ex-News of the World editor said that the now-defunct newspaper had worked on behalf of victims of crime.

He said that he did nothing to damage the investigation into Milly Dowler’s murder.

Coulson today said that he never had done anything to harm the Milly Dowler investigation and would "fight these allegations''.

He is facing allegations in relation to hacking into the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly, former Labour ministers David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and George Best's son Calum, as well as one general phone-hacking charge.

He said: “I am extremely disappointed by the CPS decision today. I will fight these allegations when they eventually get to court.

“I would like to say one thing today about the Milly Dowler allegation. Anyone who knows me, or who worked with me, would know that I wouldn’t, and more importantly that I didn’t, do anything to damage the Milly Dowler investigation.

“At the News of the World we worked on behalf of the victims of crime, particularly violent crime, and the idea that I would sit in my office dreaming up schemes to undermine investigations is simply untrue.

“That’s all I’ve got to say today.”