Rebekah Brooks takes the stand

[David Johnson]

Well we have had a couple of days or so of Rebekah Brooks in the witness box in the phone hacking trial and very interesting it's been too.

Day 1 was about the trials and tribulations of being an only child and then making her way in the newspaper industry where some nasty, nasty, nasty men journalists used to be very beastly to her. She also gave the impression that she knew as much about phone hacking at the NOW as she might have known about quantum physics or the biology of a great crested newt.

Think of Day 2 as a kind of Hello exclusive. She described her "car crash" personal life in which she was shagging Coulson while she was married to Ross Kemp and came close to tears whilst doing so.

She denied any knowledge of what main phone hacker at the NOW, Glenn Mulcaire was up to. In fact she said she had no idea who Glenn Mulcaire was while she was NOW editor even though Mulcaire was on an annual contract of ?92,000. She said her "sign-off level" for payments in 2000 and 2001 was around ?50,000, so requests for larger sums should have come to both her and then-managing editor Stuart Kuttner. She should have been told about the contract but wasn't.

Worth mentioning that it is her defence QC that is leading her through this stuff. I wonder if Ms Brooks has considered a part as Cinderella in panto this Xmas?

[Gentleman]

I can only hope they get what they deserve and the trail starts leading back to her bestest mate Dave Cameron.

[cockneygeezer2009]

Long way to go in this trial yet. I'll reserve my judgement after the jury verdict.

[Kyle Richmond]

who'd want to be on the jury having to sit there and listen to this lot , didn't this trial start before xmas but then seemed to go quiet in the press, i wonder whether the trial was held up for legal discussions/lawyers trying to get charges thrown out, she's already not guilty on one charge.

[David Johnson]

" didn't this trial start before xmas but then seemed to go quiet in the press, i wonder whether the trial was held up for legal discussions/lawyers trying to get charges thrown out, she's already not guilty on one charge"

I might be wrong but I suspect it was because it was the minor players who were in the dock. This is the first time Rebekah Brooks has actually appeared in the witness box, hence all the interest. Coulson is yet to appear in the box.

[JamesW]

David Johnson wrote:

> " didn't this trial start before xmas but then seemed to go
> quiet in the press, i wonder whether the trial was held up for
> legal discussions/lawyers trying to get charges thrown out,
> she's already not guilty on one charge"
>
> I might be wrong but I suspect it was because it was the minor
> players who were in the dock. This is the first time Rebekah
> Brooks has actually appeared in the witness box, hence all the
> interest. Coulson is yet to appear in the box.


No mystery here. The press went quiet because they didn't think there was much interest in the presentation of the prosecution case. It was only when it became the defence's turn to present their case that the media renewed their coverage of the trial.