Rebekah Brooks’ husband hid pornographic DVDs

Charlie Brooks said he hid the “explicit” DVDs along with a laptop because he did not want a “Jacqui Smith moment” – referring to the Labour home secretary who became embroiled in a row after it emerged her husband submitted an expenses claim for watching pornography.

The court has previously been shown CCTV footage of Mr Brooks entering the car park beneath the Brooks’ luxury home in Chelsea Harbour, London, carrying what was said to be a jiffy bag and a laptop.

The CCTV shows Mr Brooks walking out of shot towards, the jury was told, where bins were stored – and then walking back into shot without the objects.

‘Embarrassing’

In his evidence on Monday, Mr Brooks told the court that he had acted “incredibly stupidly” when he decided to hide the items.

Asked by his counsel Neil Saunders why he had acted in this way, the Mr Brooks said: “The DVDs are of an embarrassing nature.

“On the Sony Vaio, the main reason was it (the laptop) had some important book ideas that weren’t backed up anywhere else, but it also had a bit of smut on it.

“When I got back to the flat, I envisaged 20 policemen coming in and emptying every drawer and looking under every nook and cranny.

“I did think about my DVDs and I had my Jacqui Smith moment – a home secretary who was implicated by her husband’s porn.

“I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Rebekah.”

‘Instinctive’

The incident took place whilst Mrs Brooks was being interviewed by police in Lewisham. The court heard Rebekah Brooks had described her arrest that day as police making “a PR point”.

Mr Brooks went back to retrieve the bags later but they had gone, having been picked up by a caretaker and handed to police when the bins were emptied.

Mr Brooks told the court his motive to hide the belongings was the result of an “instinctive reaction” that police could “leak this sort of material (the pornography discovery) to the press”.

He told the court: “Ever since Operation Weeting (the phone hacking investigation) had been at the buildings at News International, a lot of stuff had been leaked, particularly to the Guardian.

“A lot of stuff had been leaked and I was very aware of that.”

Mr Brooks added that Mrs Brooks “went ballistic” when he told her that he had hidden some of his belongings from the police.

Mr and Mrs Brooks are on trial accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by hindering the police investigation.

Mrs Brooks is also accused of conspiracy to hack phones and authorising illegal payments to public officials. The couple deny all charges.

Five others are also on trial over alleged criminal activity centred on Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World tabloid. They all deny the charges.

The case continues.