Rebekah Brooks re- arrested over hacking scandal

Former top aide to Rupert Murdoch and husband, who is a long- time friend of British prime minister, arrested with four others in phone- hacking inquiry

British police investigating tabloid phone hacking have re- arrested Rebekah Brooks, a former top aide to Rupert Murdoch and ex- editor of the News of the World, and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie.

The couple were seized in dawn raids that also netted four other suspects in the scandal.

Police said all six were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. The charge is an indication that investigators may be focusing on a possible cover- up of the scope of phone hacking rather than the illegal hacking itself.

It was the most arrests in a single day since Operation Weeting, as the police investigation into phone hacking is known, began arresting reporters, senior news executives, police officers and others suspected of criminal acts.

The early morning police swoop brought the scandal to Prime Minister David Cameron’s immediate social circle.

Cameron said at a press conference earlier this month that Charlie Brooks was a long- time friend.

The two had gone horse riding together, said Cameron, who lives in the Cotswolds town of Chipping Norton where the couple also reside.

After questions were raised about the propriety of the prime minister having ridden on a retired police horse that had been loaned to Rebekah Brooks, Cameron said: “I’ve

I’ve known Charlie Brooks … for over 30 years and he’s a good friend and he’s a neighbour DAVID CAMERON EARLIER THIS MONTH

known Charlie Brooks, the husband of Rebekah Brooks, for over 30 years and he’s a good friend and he’s a neighbour in the constituency – we live a few miles apart.”

Cameron and Charlie Brooks both attended the elite Eton school.

The scandal began in 2005 with the revelation that tabloid reporters had broken into the voicemail systems of aides to the royal family in search of inside information.

It mushroomed last summer with the revelation that hacking had been widespread at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid.

Murdoch shut down the News of the World in July last year after evidence of widespread phone hacking at the tabloid emerged, but his remaining British newspapers continue to be dogged by allegations they covered up the practice.

Cameron had earlier lost his communications chief, Andy Coulson, because of questions that were raised about Coulson’s role as editor of the News of the World when phones were hacked.

Rebekah Brooks was arrested for the first time last July. She was freed on bail on suspicion of phone hacking and bribing public officials, just three days after she resigned as head of the News of the World’s publisher, Murdoch’s News International.

Police did not reveal the names of the six people arrested on Tuesday, but a person who had been briefed on the details said Rebekah and Charlie Brooks were among them.

News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s global News Corp empire, said its head of security, Mark Hanna, was also one of those arrested. Police said the suspects ranged in age from 38 to 49.

A total of 23 people have been arrested under the hacking probe, while a further 23 have been held over the alleged bribery of public officials, including 11 current or former journalists at Murdoch’s bestselling daily The Sun.

Nobody has yet been charged in the two police investigations, but the News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman and a private investigator were jailed for phone hacking following a separate police probe in 2006.

The embarrassing scandal led Cameron to create an inquiry led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson to gather evidence about media wrongdoing with an eye towards cleaning up the system.