Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks to learn if they face hacking charges

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/23/andy-coulson-rebekah-brooks

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Andy Coulson, the former communications director to the prime minister, is among 11 former News of the World journalists who will be told on Tuesday if they are to face charges in connection with the phone-hacking scandal.

The Crown Prosecution Service is due to announce its first charging decisions since Scotland Yard reopened its investigation last year and launched Operation Weeting.

The CPS has received files from the Metropolitan police's Weeting team covering 13 individuals, including 11 journalists from the now defunct Sunday tabloid and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Those under CPS examination have not officially been identified by name, although journalists who have been arrested and remain on police bail include Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, both former editors of the paper. Neville Thurlbeck, its former chief reporter, confirmed he was among those whose files had been passed to the CPS.

Prosecutors have been working on the basis of a "broad interpretation" of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa), which covers phone hacking, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, told the Guardian earlier this month. This would mean it was not absolutely necessary for the purposes of bringing a criminal prosecution for a voicemail message to have been hacked into, by, or on behalf of the NoW before it had been heard by its intended recipient.

There had previously been disagreement between the CPS and the Met over whether a criminal offence had been committed if a voicemail message had already been heard by the person for whom it was left.

The Met said on Monday it believes there are 4,775 potential victims of phone hacking, of which 2,615 have been notified. Deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson inquiry that the Met had notified more than 702 people who are "likely" to have been victims.

Akers also said Operation Elveden, the Met's investigation into alleged illegal payments by journalists to police, has gone beyond News International to include payments from Trinity Mirror and Express Newspapers.

On Monday it emerged that Patricia Bernal, the mother of Clare Bernal who was murdered by a former boyfriend while working at Harvey Nichols, is suing News International after being told by the Met that her phone was targeted hours after her daughter died in 2005.