Phone-hacking trial: Brooks on 'strain' with rival Coulson
Rebekah Brooks said she did not know the source of a News of the World story about MP David Blunkett Rebekah Brooks has spoken of her "strained" relationship with ex-lover and rival editor Andy Coulson.
She told the phone-hacking trial they kept a "Chinese wall" between them over work when she edited the Sun and Mr Coulson was News of the World editor.
She also said there was "disbelief" in the Sun's newsroom when News of the World royal correspondent Clive Goodman was arrested over phone hacking.
Mrs Brooks denies charges related to hacking.
Recalling her reaction to news of Goodman's arrest in August 2006, the 45-year-old said from "the Sun's point of view" there was "disbelief of the allegations at first".
She said that following his arrest she asked staff in her newsroom about the use of private detectives.
"I did ask them about private detectives," she said. "Not in the context of accessing people's voicemails but just asking, 'We don't use these kind of people do we?'
"The Sun was always very low in its use of private detectives compared to other newspapers," she said.
Giving an example of the professional distance between herself and Mr Coulson and the two tabloid newspapers they edited, Mrs Brooks said had not known about a story - allegedly obtained by phone hacking - about an affair involving Labour MP David Blunkett.
The prosecution claims the story about Mr Blunkett, published by the News of the World in summer 2004, was "developed from a hack".
'Full steam ahead'Mrs Brooks, who was replaced as editor of the News of the World by Mr Coulson when she moved to the Sun in January 2003, twice said "No" when asked if she knew her old paper was working on a story about Mr Blunkett.
Asked if she knew the News of the World had accessed voicemails connected to Mr Blunkett, she said: "No, absolutely not."
She said Mr Coulson told her about the story "late on Saturday night" before its publication on Sunday, and said she did not know the source of the story.
After Mr Coulson's tip-off, she said her team at the Sun went "full steam ahead" to find out the name of the woman involved with Mr Blunkett.
Mrs Brooks told the court she had "quite a strong relationship" with Mr Blunkett, whom she had worked with on campaigns.
No comments:
Post a Comment