Rebekah Brooks 'asked Times editor for sourcing of Milly Dowler story'

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/23/rebekah-brooks-times-editor-milly-dowler

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Rebekah Brooks wrote to the then editor of the Times asking him to find out who had given "the nod" to his crime editor that Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked, the jury in the phone-hacking trial at the Old Bailey has heard.

Brooks fired off an email in July 2011 the morning after the Dowler story appeared online to James Harding, asking him to find out the sourcing behind what she described as a "proper Guardian/BBC/old Labour hit".

In her email, Brooks asked Harding to find out how the Times journalist Sean O'Neill "knows page one/three [of the Times] are true".

Articles about the hacking of Milly's phone had appeared on pages 1 and 3 of the Times the day after the story was first broken by the Guardian. She added: "We have zero visibility on the veracity of these allegations."

Brooks also wrote: "Clearly Sean will have checked it out that indeed police have evidence of this – even though MPS have never mentioned it or indeed Surrey police. This is a proper Guardian/BBC/old Labour hit.

"Tom Watson tweeted it earlier yesterday that exciting things were coming. I just need to know who gave Sean the nod it was true/ The Yard? Surrey police?"

The email was raised by the barrister for her husband Charlie in the phone-hacking trial after evidence was cited in relation to Operation Kilo, an investigation into alleged police leaks to the Guardian about the phone-hacking scandal in 2011.

Mr Justice Saunders told the jury that the evidence they had heard "related to leaks to the press" from the Met's investigating team "at the time of the inquiry" and that the "only relevance" was that Charlie Brooks feared that the police investigation could leak.

The jury in the phone-hacking trial heard that a senior police officer had leaked details of the phone-hacking arrests to the Guardian but escaped prosecution because no money had changed hands.

DC Andrew Nunn, a case officer on Kilo, confirmed that there were text messages and calls between DC Peter Cripps and the Guardian journalist Amelia Hill that preceded the publication of the Dowler hacking story on 4 July 2011.

News that Milly's phone had been hacked had become "a talking point" on the inquiry team at the time, the Kilo investigation had found.

Det Supt Mark Mitchell said the investigation into leaks to the press had been prompted by a complaint by Andy Coulson to the Met.

Coulson's solicitors wrote to police in July 2011 complaining that the Guardian had reported he was going to be arrested at 7.42pm on 7 July, the evening before he was detained by police.

The court heard that there were 17 text messages between Hill and Cripps on 7 July and two telephone calls, one lasting nine minutes and the other lasting eight and a half minutes.

Lawyers at DLA Piper, acting for Coulson, wrote to the Met saying they had not leaked the details and they could only have been "leaked from the Met". The court heard they went on to raise "very serious concern" over the details in the article which "could and should only be known by those connected to the investigation".

Operation Kilo was set up in the autumn of 2011. Cripps, who was suspected of leaking to Hill, was involved in setting the Met police's strategy on phone-hacking arrests and would have been "quite centrally placed" in the team, Mitchell said.

Mitchell told the jury: "DC Cripps was informing Amelia Hill around when arrests were to take place, who they were, and conditions around things like bail."

Mitchell's team suspected Cripps was responsible for the leaks because of the quantity of texts and calls between him and the Guardian journalist.

A schedule of evidence tracking communication between Cripps and Hill, articles in the Guardian and Scotland Yard press releases were shown to the jury.

The court was told that a file in relation to Cripps and Hill had been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service but no charges had been brought because "no financial inducement" had been involved. Cripps had since retired, Mitchell said.

Hill's articles had included one that revealed that a bag containing a computer, laptop and phone had been found near a bin at the car park of Rebekah Brooks's Chelsea home.

The bag was found on 18 July, the day detectives were called in relation to the bag, which was later identified as belonging to Charlie Brooks and prompted his arrest and charging in relation to an alleged conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

"It is understood the bag was handed in to security at around 3pm, and that shortly afterwards Brooks's husband, Charlie, arrived and tried to reclaim it. He was unable to prove the bag was his and the security guard refused to release it," she wrote.

The jury have heard how the bag was discovered by a cleaner that morning and police were called that afternoon to examine it.

Both Charlie and Rebekah Brooks have been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, which they deny.

The trial continues.