Brooks hits out at CPS decision to press charges
REBEKAH Brooks, former chief executive of News International, was yesterday charged with three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
In a statement yesterday evening Brooks said she was “baffled” by the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision.
“Whilst I have always respected the criminal justice system, you have to question whether this decision has been made on a proper impartial assessment of the evidence,” she said.
Brooks, who edited both The News of the World and The Sun, added her belief that the decision was “weak and unjust”, claiming: “People will see today as an expensive sideshow and a waste of public money.”
She was joined by her husband, racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, who said the charges were “an attempt to use me and others as scapegoats, the effect of which is to ratchet up the pressure on my wife who I believe is the subject of a witch hunt.”
Rebekah Brooks’ charges include counts of conspiring to conceal material, documents and electronic equipment from the police and conspiring to remove seven boxes of material from the News International archive.
Of the seven people suspected relating to this evidence, six – including Rebekah and Charlie Brooks – were yesterday charged.
The others comprise Brooks’ personal assistant Cheryl Carter, News International’s head of security Mark Hanna, Brooks’ chauffeur Paul Edwards and security guard Daryl Jorsling.
Rebekah Brooks said: “I cannot express my anger enough that those close to me have unfairly been dragged into this.”
The charges announced yesterday are the first to be made as part of the police probes into inappropriate payments from journalists to police officers and allegations of illegal phone-hacking.
Two further arrests were made yesterday; an employee of HM Revenue & Customs, on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and corruption, and another on suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct.