The former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks says that while she was editor of the British Sunday paper she never heard of a private investigator who has since been jailed for phone hacking.
Rebekah Brooks arriving at the court in London with her husband, Charlie Brooks. Photo: AFP
Mrs Brooks, who's on trial at the Old Bailey in London charged with perverting the course of justice, says she never heard investigator Glenn Mulcaire's name mentioned.
On her first day of giving evidence at the phone-hacking trial, she was asked if Mulcaire's involvement in accessing voicemail messages was ever brought to her attention between May 2000 and January 2003. She replied: "No, not at all."
Asked by her barrister, Jonathan Laidlaw, if she had heard Mulcaire's name mentioned during that time, she said: "No."
Mrs Brooks told the court there were private detectives working at the News of the World, and added that it was "common practice in Fleet Street".
Mulcaire was jailed in 2007, along with the paper's then royal editor, Clive Goodman, after admitting intercepting voicemails.
Mrs Brooks denied the News of the World's investigations unit was the "dark arts department" and was involved with alleged illegal activity. She added: "The investigations unit, I think, did some great stuff while I was there. I don't recognise that description."
Asked by her barrister if the unit, which came to an end in 2001, had been set up specifically to hack phones, she replied: "It's just not correct."
Mrs Brooks said she would not have known where every story in the newspaper had come from. "It's impossible for an editor to know every source for every story," she told the court. "Of course it's impossible, with the sheer volume that's coming in to the paper."
Earlier, she was formally cleared of one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
