The Crown Prosecution Service has just announced that Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks have been charged over the alleged bribery of public officials.
In the case of Coulson, the charges relate to payments made for a Palace phone directory, known as the “Green Book”, containing contact details for the Royal Family. Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal editor, who was imprisoned in 2007 for hacking phones belonging to the Royal Household, has also been charged in relation to these allegations.
In the case of Brooks, the charges relate to an alleged payment of £100,000 to Ministry of Defence employee Bettina Jordan Barber in exchange for information which formed the basis of a series of stories published by the Sun. Jordan Barber and the Sun’s chief reporter, John Kay, have also been charged.
These are the third set of charges Coulson and Brooks have faced. Coulson has previouly been charged with committing perjury at the trial of Tommy Sheridan in December 2010 and with phone-hacking between October 2000 and 2006. Brooks has also been charged with phone-hacking, including in the case of Milly Dowler, and with perverting the course of justice by concealing evidence from police investigating hacking last summer.
Fifty two people have now been arrested as part of Operation Elveden, the Met’s investigation into alleged illegal payments to police and other public officials, including 21 journalists at the Sun.
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