UK to charge 8 in hacking scandal

Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, leaves Westminster Magistrates' Courts on June 13 after she was granted bond on charges of attempting to cover up tabloid phone-hacking in London. British authorities July 24 charged her and seven others in the ever-widening phone hacking scandal, accusing them of key roles in a lengthy campaign of illegal espionage that victimized hundreds including top celebrities Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.
Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, leaves Westminster Magistrates' Courts on June 13 after she was granted bond on charges of attempting to cover up tabloid phone-hacking in London. British authorities July 24 charged her and seven others in the ever-widening phone hacking scandal, accusing them of key roles in a lengthy campaign of illegal espionage that victimized hundreds including top celebrities Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt.

— British authorities are charging former David Cameron aide Andy Coulson, former Rupert Murdoch protege Rebekah Brooks, and six others for their roles in Britain’s ever-widening tabloid phone-hacking scandal, a senior prosecutor said Tuesday.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s Alison Levitt said Coulson and Brooks, both former News of the World editors, were among those being charged over their roles in intercepting the communications of more than 600 people. Some of the suspects have individually been charged with eavesdropping on Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, soccer star Wayne Rooney, and former Beatle Paul McCartney.

Levitt said that, with reference to the suspects, “there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction in relation to one or more offenses.”

Coulson is an ex-News of the World editor who later found work as Cameron’s communications chief. Brooks was the chief executive of Murdoch’s London-based News International. Others being charged are senior tabloid journalists Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck, James Weatherup and Ian Edmondson.

Coulson, Brooks, and Kuttner are accused of conspiring to break into the voice mail of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, a school girl whose 2002 disappearance transfixed the country. Milly was eventually found dead, and the revelation that the News of the World had hacked into her phone revolted the country.

The three have denied wrongdoing.

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