Jury selection begins in the trial of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson on charges linked to phone hacking and alleged corrupt payments to public officials.
Former News International chief executive Ms Brooks and ex-government spin doctor Mr Coulson, both 45, appeared at the Old Bailey for the first day of proceedings that could take up to six months.
A panel of around 80 potential jurors were brought into wood-panelled court 12 at around 12.30pm, and whittled down to 33 possible panel members.
They were asked to fill in a questionnaire and given until Tuesday to make sure that they can commit to the full length of the trial.
Mr Justice Saunders told them: “The trial which we are about to start will take a considerable length of time. It is estimated that the case may last until easter. I hope that with the assistance of counsel the case will finish more quickly, but people who sit on it should be prepared for the case to go on that long.”
Seats had to be removed from the courtroom to allow the potential jurors to fit into the space.
The judge added: “To sit on a jury for this length of time, five or six months, is a significant disruption in people’s lives and we do appreciate that. We do need the assistance of members of the public like you to try this case. It is, as you will hear, an important case and we have to find a jury able to try it.”
He told them that jury service “is a public duty and is not voluntary”, and added: “It’s critical to the jury system … that a jury takes the case free from any preconceptions. From now on you do not discuss the case with anyone.”
Ms Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, and Mr Coulson, 45, from Preston in Kent, are both accused of conspiracy to intercept communications in the course of their transmission.
They are accused of conspiring with former News of the World (NoW) head of news Ian Edmondson, 44, from Raynes Park, south-west London, the tabloid’s ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73, from Woodford Green, Essex, and others to illegally access voicemails between 3 October 2000 and 9 August 2006.
Ex-NoW and Sun editor Ms Brooks is also charged with two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office, one between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2012 and the other between 9 February 2006 and 16 October 2008, 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, 49, from Chelmsford in Essex, between 6-9 July 2011.
It is alleged that they conspired to remove seven boxes of material from the News International archive.
The second count alleges that Ms Brooks, her husband Charles Brooks and former head of security at News International Mark Hanna conspired together and with others between 15 July and 19 July 2011 to pervert the course of justice.
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-NoW editor Mr Coulson is also facing two allegations that he conspired with the tabloid’s former royal editor Clive Goodman, 56, from Addlestone in Surrey, and persons unknown to commit misconduct in public office – one between 31 August 2002 and 31 January 2003; and the other between 31 January and 3 June 2005.
Potential jurors were asked to come back to court on Tuesday morning, when it is expected that a final panel will be sworn in. All eight defendants were released on bail until then.