Rupert Murdoch's former British newspaper chief and Prime Minister David Cameron's ex-media head have gone on trial for phone hacking.
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, both former editors of Mr Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid, are accused of conspiring to illegally access voicemail messages on mobile phones belonging to politicians, the famous, and victims of crime.
They deny a series of charges alongside several other journalists employed by tycoon Rupert Murdoch's company.
Rebekah Brooks denies she conspired with others to hack mobile phones at the News of the World newspaper which she edited from 2000 to 2003.
Andy Coulson edited it from 2003 to 2007 and also denies conspiracy to intercept mobile phone voicemails.
The pair and other defendants deny charges which came out of a police investigation into Mr Murdoch's News of the World which he shut due to the scandal.
Jury selection for the trial at the Old Bailey in London began on Monday.
Detectives launched an investigation in January 2011 and since then more than 125 people have been arrested and more than 40 charged, Reuters reports.
The most prominent are Mr Coulson, 45, and Ms Brooks, a close friend of Prime Minister David Cameron. He attended her wedding in 2009 along with the then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Ms Brooks, 45, was the first woman editor of Murdoch's top-selling Sun paper and had risen to become head of News International, News Corp's British newspaper arm, when the furore over phone-hacking led to her resignation.
Mr Coulson, who quit the News of the World in 2007, had acted as Mr Cameron's communications chief until he resigned in 2011 saying the issue had become a distraction for the government.
