Prosecutors Press Phone-Hacking Case

Updated Nov. 1, 2013 2:44 p.m. ETLONDON—Prosecutors described emails that they said provided evidence that former News Corp NWSA +0.97% News Corp Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq $17.77 +0.17 +0.97% Nov. 1, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 3.69M AFTER HOURS $17.77 0.00 0.00% Nov. 1, 2013 5:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 21,001 P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $10.25 Billion Dividend Yield N/A Rev. per Employee $370,458 11/01/13 Prosecutors Press Phone-Hackin… 10/31/13 Newspapers’ Circulation Measur… 10/31/13 Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson H… More quote details and news » NWSA in Your Value Your Change Short position editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson personally approved bribes to public officials in the pursuit of stories, as a high-profile criminal trial continued here Friday.
Prosecutors said that Ms. Brooks, while editor of the Sun, approved payments of nearly £40,000 ($64,000) to one public official in exchange for information. In a 2006 email exchange, detailed by prosecutors in court Friday, a reporter requested approval for a £4,500 payment to the official, whom he called his “number one military contact,” for three stories. Ms. Brooks’s response, according to prosecutors: “of course.”
In another 2006 email, Ms. Brooks approved a £4,000 payment to a military official for a photograph of Prince William dressed in a bikini as part of a Bond-girl costume, prosecutors said.

Andy Coulson, former News of the World editor and adviser to the U.K. prime minister, outside court on Friday. Reuters

The allegations about Ms. Brooks, a longtime favorite of News Corp Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch, and Mr. Coulson, who later served as British Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications chief, came as prosecutors made their third day of opening statements in the trial stemming from illegal voice-mail interception at News Corp’s now-closed News of the World tabloid.
Ms. Brooks served as top editor for the News of the World and then the Sun before becoming chief executive of News Corp’s U.K. newspaper division. She has pleaded not guilty to five charges related to bribery, obstruction of justice and illegal voice-mail interception, or phone hacking.
Mr. Coulson succeeded Ms. Brooks as top editor at the News of the World and later moved to 10 Downing Street as communications chief for Mr. Cameron. He has pleaded not guilty to three charges related to phone hacking and bribery.
Prosecutors plan to continue their opening arguments Monday. After that, Mr. Coulson’s lawyer is expected to make an opening statement.
Six other defendants in the trial—including other former News Corp employees—have pleaded not guilty to a number of charges related to a wide-ranging probe of phone hacking. Three former News of the World journalists and a private investigator recently pleaded guilty to illegal mobile-phone voice-mail interception, prosecutors disclosed earlier this week.
News Corp’s U.K. newspaper unit declined to comment. News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, was part of a larger company also called News Corp. that in June split in two, spinning off its television, movie and entertainment businesses into a new company, 21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA +0.85% 21st Century Fox Inc. Cl A U.S.: Nasdaq $34.37 +0.29 +0.85% Nov. 1, 2013 4:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 8.18M AFTER HOURS $34.37 0.00 0.00% Nov. 1, 2013 5:00 pm Volume (Delayed 15m): 314,026 P/E Ratio 11.34 Market Cap $75.67 Billion Dividend Yield 0.73% Rev. per Employee $1,081,050 10/31/13 Animation Studio Tries for a H… 10/31/13 Disney’s Mouse Has Room to Roa… 10/24/13 FCC Set to Ease Media Ownershi… More quote details and news » FOXA in Your Value Your Change Short position
The lead prosecutor, Andrew Edis, on Friday also detailed emails he said linked Mr. Coulson to bribery payments. In a 2005 email exchange, Mr. Edis said, a reporter sought Mr. Coulson’s approval for a cash payment to a palace policeman for a hard-to-obtain phone book listing contact numbers for palace staff.
“We usually pay £1,000 a go for these. It’s a very risky document for him to nick. OK to put the credit through?” prosecutors said the reporter wrote to Mr. Coulson in an email. Mr. Coulson responded half an hour later, according to Mr. Edis, saying: “Fine.”
Mr. Edis also alleged that Mr. Coulson was directly involved with stories that the News of the World tabloid uncovered by phone hacking. At one point as the editor of the now-closed News of the World, Mr. Coulson sent an email to a member of his staff about uncovering information on a celebrity. “Do his phone,” the prosecution alleged Mr. Coulson said—a reference, Mr. Edis said, to phone hacking.
Mr. Coulson has previously said that he’d been unaware of the hacking at News of the World, where he served as deputy editor from 2000 to 2003, under Ms. Brooks, and then as the top editor from 2003 to 2007. He would later move on to become chief spokesman for Mr. Cameron.
But Mr. Edis told the court that evidence contradicted Mr. Coulson’s public statements. As Mr. Coulson, 45 years old, looked on in the courtroom, Mr. Edis addressed the jury: “Does he know about phone hacking? He says he does not. We say: Oh yes, he does.”
The focus on Mr. Coulson’s alleged crimes resurfaces embarrassing questions for Mr. Cameron about his judgment in employing the former News of the World editor. A Downing Street spokesman declined to comment, citing the continuing trial.
Mr. Cameron hired Mr. Coulson in 2007 just months after Mr. Coulson resigned from the paper, after one of his reporters and a private investigator working for the paper pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally intercept voice-mail messages. Mr. Coulson initially worked as communications chief for Britain’s Conservative party-then the main opposition party. Three years later, he moved to Downing Street as top communications adviser for the prime minister when Mr. Cameron took office.
Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@wsj.com and Cassell Bryan-Low at cassell.bryan-low@wsj.com

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