Rebekah Brooks’ husband tried to hide a stash of pornography from police investigating the phone-hacking scandal, a court heard yesterday.
A pornographic magazine called Lesbian Lovers, along with seven DVDs, were among items contained in bags belonging to Charlie Brooks that were found in the underground car park of the couple's Chelsea home, the jury at the hacking trial in the Old Bailey were told.
They were in bags allegedly taken away by Mrs Brooks’ security staff as the property was searched by police, and then later returned in a black bin liner.
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CCTV footage of what the prosecution claim was an operation to hide hacking evidence was shown to the Old Bailey.
A Brazilian cleaner found the bags apparently containing two laptops and an iPad as he made his morning rounds emptying bins at the Chelsea Harbour flats in July 2011.
Jurors laughed as Neil Saunders QC, counsel for Brooks quipped: "If you had opened it, you would not have forgotten it because inside there was a magazine whose title was Lesbian Lovers."
Giving evidence yesterday, the cleaner Fernando Nascimento said he remembered there was a computer in one of the bags and an iPad in the other.
The cleaner said he did not see any explicit material.
The discovery was made the day after the former News International chief executive was arrested at a south London police station in connection with Scotland Yard's phone hacking investigation.
It was alleged by the prosecution in the November opening of the case last year that the bin liner and the bags it contained were hidden behind large rubbish containers in the carpark .
This was described by the prosecution as part of an elaborate plan, involving the Brooks' and security men working for News International, who had attempted to keep material from falling into the hands of the police who searched the couple's riverside apartment on the day of Mrs Brooks' arrest.