PHONE-HACKING VERDICT
(2) = facing two charges
| Defendant | Charge(s) | Verdict |
| Andy Coulson | conspiracy to hack phones conspiring to commit misconduct in public office(2) | Guilty No verdict returned |
| Rebekah Brooks | conspiracy to hack phones conspiracy to pervert the course of justice(2) conspiring to commit misconduct in public office(2) | Cleared of all charges |
| Charlie Brooks | conspiracy to pervert the course of justice | Cleared |
| Clive Goodman | conspiring to commit misconduct in public office(2) | No verdict returned |
| Cheryl Carter | conspiracy to pervert the course of justice | Cleared |
| Mark Hanna | conspiracy to pervert the course of justice | Cleared |
| Stuart Kuttner | conspiracy to hack phones | Cleared |
PRIME MINISTER David Cameron apologised today after his former Director of Communications, Andy Coulson, was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones while editor at the News of the World.
Coulson, who was editor of the newspaper between 2003 and 2007, was convicted by the jury of eight women and three men at the Old Bailey.
However, his predecessor at the now-defunct paper, the flame-haired Rebekah Brooks, was cleared of all of the charges against her.
Mrs Brooks's husband, Charlie Brooks, was cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, as was her long-standing personal secretary Cheryl Carter and News International's head of security Mark Hanna.
The last of the seven defendants, former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, was cleared of conspiring to hack voicemails.
The trial, which lasted 138 days, was one of the longest and most expensive in British legal history - but, with justice served in the courts, attention soon turned to Downing Street.
Mr Cameron, who hired Coulson only weeks after he resigned from the News of the World, had earlier promised to apologise if Coulson was found guilty.
And, today, Mr Cameron had to make that apology, stating that he was "extremely sorry" that he had made "the wrong decision" despite the assurances he had received.
Of course, the apology is all well and good - although, frankly, anything less would have surely been an abdication of responsibility. Nevertheless, doubts will remain over Mr Cameron's judgement.
After all, the PM had gone against the advice of some his own colleagues in making the appointment.
It was no surprise then to see Labour leader Ed Miliband look to make some easy political capital out of the verdict.
"David Cameron brought a criminal into the heart of Downing Street," declared Mr Miliband.
But the Tories can point out that Labour also once had a close association with the News of the World, such was the power of the Rupert Murdoch-owned weekly.
As a matter of fact, it was revealed during the trial that former Prime Minister Tony Blair had sent a series of text messages to Mrs Brooks signed with a "T" and a kiss.
And, this was not the only close relationship exposed in the deliberations at the Old Bailey.
It emerged, quite sensationally, that Coulson and Mrs Brooks had indulged in a long-term affair between 1998 and 2007 while Mrs Brooks was married to her ex-husband, actor Ross Kemp.
The jury ruled today, though, that while Coulson definitely knew that phone-hacking was going on at his newspaper, it could not be said that Mrs Brooks did.
So, while her embarrassment may be quite considerable - at least, in the eyes of the law, she cannot be considered a criminal.
In spite of this, few tears will be shed among phone-hacking victims for Mrs Brooks.
They will argue that the pain they suffered through the invasion of their privacy by Coulson and others at the News of the World far outweighs her embarrassment.
And, while welcoming Coulson's conviction and the damages they have received in their own civil cases, the phone-hacking victims could easily argue that they are still without an overriding resolution.
That, of course, was meant to emerge from the Leveson Inquiry into "the culture, practices and ethics of the press", which concluded that some kind of statutory regulation was required.
Political wrangling and some reasonable worries about state control of the press resulted in outright statutory regulation being replaced by a Royal Charter.
But, while Murdoch has been able to start up a new weekly paper on a Sunday, none of his publications has yet signed up to the Charter.
Nor have the newspapers from the Mail group, the Telegraph group or the Trinity Mirror stable.
Indeed, despite the Coulson verdict today, not much seems to have changed at all.
