Phone Hacking Trial: Andy Coulson And Rebekah Brooks In Court

After Months Of Speculation, Hacking Trial Underway

The newspaper editor, top journalists and the ex-Number 10 spin doctor at the heart of the storm around alleged phone hacking which engulfed Fleet Street will appear at the Old Bailey on Monday, to face a trial likely to last over five months.

Known across the popular press as "hacking trial", former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and ex-government spin doctor Andy Coulson will face charges linked to phone hacking and alleged corrupt payments to public officials.

Brooks and Coulson are both accused of conspiracy to intercept communications in the course of their transmission.

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Rebekah Brooks is one of the ex-journalists facing trial on Monday

They are accused of conspiring with former News of the World head of news Ian Edmondson; the tabloid's ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner and others to illegally access voicemails between October 3 2000 and August 9 2006.

Ex-NOTW and Sun editor Brooks is also charged with two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office, linked to alleged inappropriate payments to public officials.

She faces another two allegations of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice - one with her former personal assistant Cheryl Carter.

It is alleged that they conspired to remove seven boxes of material from the News International archive.

The second count alleges that Brooks, her husband Charles Brooks and former head of security at News International Mark Hanna conspired together to pervert the course of justice, on a separate date.

It is claimed that they tried to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from police officers who were investigating allegations of phone hacking and corruption of public officials in relation to the News of the World and The Sun newspapers.

Former Number 10 spin doctor and ex-NOTW editor Coulson is also facing two allegations that he conspired with the tabloid's former royal editor Clive Goodman, and persons unknown, to commit misconduct in public office - on two separate occasions.

It is expected that jury selection will take place today and that the prosecution will open later in the week.