Rebekah Brooks apologises for ‘abhorrent’ phone hacking
Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks expresses her ‘ultimate’ regret over her company’s slow response to the phone hacking crisis but denies she knew of any impropriety on her watch.
Appearing before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee she said it was only after she saw papers lodged in a civil damages case brought by actress Sienna Miller last year that she understood how serious the situation was.
Prior to this period she claimed: “We had been told by people at News of the World at the time – they consistently denied any of these allegations in various internal investigations.”
Ms Brooks, who edited the News of the World from 2000-2003, began her appearance by personally apologising for the scandal.
“Clearly, what happened at the News of the World and certainly (with) the allegations of voicemail intercepts of victims of crime is pretty horrific and abhorrent,” she said.
Ms Brooks also said she had never paid a policeman for information despite telling the select committee in 2003: “We have paid the police for information in the past.”
“Straight after my comment about payment to police it was in fact clarified [by News International],” Brooks said.
“I clarified it again to the home affairs committee at the end of March. I can say I have never paid a policeman myself, I have never knowingly sanctioned a payment to a police officer.”
She added: “In my experience of dealing with the police, the information they give to newspapers comes free of charge.”
The 43 year old was pressed on the use of private detectives by News of the World and admitted she had used them to pursue “purely legitimate” targets in the public interest although she denied ever having met private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.
“I didn’t know particularly that Glenn Mulcaire was one of the detectives that was used by the News of the World,” she said.
Ms Brooks, who resigned from News International last Friday, was pressed to name other private detectives who had worked with the News of the World but said that issue had been covered during the Operation Motorman investigation. She went on to say it was the responsibility of the managing editor to authorise payments to private detectives.
Asked whether she had any regrets, she said: “Of course I have regrets.”
“The idea that Milly Dowler’s phone was accessed by someone being paid by the News of the World, or even worse authorised by someone at the News of the World, is as abhorrent to me as it is to everyone in this room.”
“And it is an ultimate regret that the speed in which we have tried to find out the bottom of these investigations has been too slow.”
Ms Brooks denied any knowledge of the alleged hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone while she was editor, saying: “I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would authorise, no, sanction, approval, anyone listening to the voicemails of Milly Dowler in those circumstances.
“I just don’t know anyone who would think it was the right and proper thing to do at this time or at any time.
Asked whether she took personal responsibility for what happened, she replied: “I would take responsibility, absolutely, and I really do want to understand what happened, I think all of us do.
“Because that, you know, out of everything I’ve heard on this case, that was probably the most shocking thing I’ve heard for a long time and certainly the most shocking thing I’d heard about potential journalists who work for News International.”
She went on to say the decision to close down the News of the World was taken because it had lost the trust of its readers.
“Once that trust was broken, we felt that that was the right decision. Of course, it wasn’t the right decision for the hundreds of journalists who worked on there, had done nothing wrong, were in no way responsible,” she said.
