LUKE MACGREGOR/REUTERS
Rebekah Brooks and husband Charlie Brooks arrive at court Wednesday for her first day of cross-examination by prosecutors who say she bribed officials, hacked phones and then tried to cover it all up.
Rupert Murdoch’s former British newspaper boss Rebekah Brooks was accused by prosecutors on Wednesday of having known for years that phone-hacking was far wider than her company had acknowledged and was part of a cover-up.
Brooks, who ran News Corp.’s British arm News International until 2011, also said she could not explain why the editor of one of its papers had said to her all was “going so well” on the day his royal editor had pleaded guilty to phone-hacking.
Brooks was appearing in the witness box for a ninth day at London’s Old Bailey .
RELATED: REBEKAH BROOKS TELLS COURT SHE GOT DEATH THREATS
Wednesday marked the first day of cross-examination by prosecutors.
She denies charges of conspiracy to hack phones, authorizing illegal payments to public officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
On Tuesday, she told the court she ‘lost it’ when her husband, Charlie Brooks, said he’d hidden his vast collection of lesbian porn from phone hacking investigators.
LUKE MACGREGOR/REUTERS
Under cross-examination for the first time in her phone hacking trial, Rebekah Brooks denied Wednesday that she knew for years about policy of tapping phones belonging to celebrities, government officials and the royal family.
RELATED: REBEKAH BROOKS TESTIFIES SHE PAID OFFICIALS FOR INFORMATION
Under cross examination, Brooks was asked why News International had publicly stated phone-hacking was limited to a “rogue” reporter jailed in 2007 until that position no longer became tenable two years later when she became its boss.
“As of that date did you know News International were covering up the extent of the phone-hacking at the News of the World,” prosecutor Andrew Edis said to her.
“No”, she replied.
RELATED: EX-NEWS OF THE WORLD EDITOR DENIES KNOWING ABOUT CONTRACT WITH PRIVATE EYE
Edis asked whether she believed the company’s behavior was honorable during this period, to which she responded: “At the time I did – I had no reason to believe otherwise.”
Private detective Glenn Mulcaire and the News of the World’s former royal editor Clive Goodman were jailed seven years ago after pleading guilty to phone-hacking.
Both admitted hacking phones of members of Britain’s royal household, and Mulcaire said he had tapped the phone messages of five other well-known figures.
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