Rebekah Brooks Charged in UK Phone Hacking Scandal

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International and the ex-editor for News of the World, will be brought up on charges in the phone-hacking case, along with seven other individuals. I...
Rebekah Brooks Charged in UK Phone Hacking Scandal
Written by WebProNews

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International and the ex-editor for News of the World, will be brought up on charges in the phone-hacking case, along with seven other individuals. If she’s found guilty of the crimes, which including conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, Brooks could face up to two years in prison. Altogether, the group faces 19 charges involving nearly 600 victims, which include various celebrities.

“I am not guilty of these charges,” Brooks explained in a statement. “I did not authorize, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship 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.”

Brooks, along with former editor Andy Coulson and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, have been accused of illegally obtaining voice mails from Milly Dowler, a 13 year-old girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 2002. Dowler was on her way home from school when she was abducted by Levi Bellfield, who was convicted of the crimes in June of 2011. As a result of the ensuing scandal, News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch resigned in 2011. News of the World, rocked by the aftermath of the scandal, closed shortly thereafter.

Coulson, meanwhile, has issued his own statement on the matter, proclaiming once again that he did nothing to harm the investigation into Dowler’s disappearance. He added, “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.”

Presently, a court date has not been set.

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