Coulson & Brooks hacking trial starts today

Coulson & Brooks hacking trial starts today

Author
Discussion

Rude-boy

22,227 posts

233 months

Friday 28th March 2014
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pcvdriver said:
Because if they added the word/town Shorpe to the list of allowable words/phrases etc etc - we'd get loads of people on here calling each other Shorpes just to get the word past the censors. laugh
O/T - I like it as it reminds me everytime I see it that no matter how 'bright' computers are and become the Mk1 Human Brain will always be more rounded.

outnumbered

4,078 posts

234 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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Charlie Brooks sounds like a right character based on his evidence.

It seems like there was actually no relevant evidence about Rebekah Brooks and phone hacking on the computers that Charlie Brooks arranged to have hidden and were found by a cleaner. But Charlie Brooks has admitted to hiding them.

So is it Perverting the Course of Justice to hide something that's not relevant, just to avoid the inconvenience of the police seizing it ? Or does there actually have to be something material to the case involved for it to count as PCOJ ? I suppose that's what the jury will have to decide.

At any rate, it seems like the prosecution would have a much stronger case if there had actually been anything relevant found on the computers.

Muncher

12,219 posts

249 months

Tuesday 1st April 2014
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It will be a question for the judge rather than the jury. I think the offence they have been charged with is attempting to pervert the course of justice, so it matters not that they didn't succeed.

carinaman

21,274 posts

172 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27112577

laugh

I think Cameron should have fought harder to keep him.

Derek Smith

45,593 posts

248 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
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Not really on topic but:

when the CID in the City of London was riddled with corruption, some officers fed the press with information on the enquiry into the Express payroll job in 1976. The suggestion was that information that would have been carefully 'lost' by those in pay of the robbers was given to the press as a means of 'insurance' that it was included.

Just to say that I have no idea how many were involved, what percentage of detectives were taking a bung and that when the Commander of the CoL police was called, on tape, by a really nasty chap involved in organised crime, "the biggest unhung villain" I totally believe, as mentioned later, that the chap did not realise what he was saying as he was drunk. Anyway:

One of the senior officers in the enquiry called all those on the major incident team and others doing bits and pieces into the hall and 'told them off' saying that if he ever discovered who was informing the press they would be in serious trouble. This could be taken one of two way: 1/ discipline or, 2/ not discipline, the former being much more preferable.

I was dragged in for the bking, although all I was doing was writing up a crime in the CID general office.

I then left the nick, walked down to Blackfriars railway station to give a crime number to the prop of a shop nearby, and then wandered along Fleet Street, say a journey of some 45 minutes - a cup of tea was involved. In the street I was confronted by placards for the Evening News read: Senior Officer warns enquiry team.

That was cool, and also risky. The corrupt ones didn't mess about.

joe_90

4,206 posts

231 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
Not really on topic but:

when the CID in the City of London was riddled with corruption, some officers fed the press with information on the enquiry into the Express payroll job in 1976. The suggestion was that information that would have been carefully 'lost' by those in pay of the robbers was given to the press as a means of 'insurance' that it was included.

Just to say that I have no idea how many were involved, what percentage of detectives were taking a bung and that when the Commander of the CoL police was called, on tape, by a really nasty chap involved in organised crime, "the biggest unhung villain" I totally believe, as mentioned later, that the chap did not realise what he was saying as he was drunk. Anyway:

One of the senior officers in the enquiry called all those on the major incident team and others doing bits and pieces into the hall and 'told them off' saying that if he ever discovered who was informing the press they would be in serious trouble. This could be taken one of two way: 1/ discipline or, 2/ not discipline, the former being much more preferable.

I was dragged in for the bking, although all I was doing was writing up a crime in the CID general office.

I then left the nick, walked down to Blackfriars railway station to give a crime number to the prop of a shop nearby, and then wandered along Fleet Street, say a journey of some 45 minutes - a cup of tea was involved. In the street I was confronted by placards for the Evening News read: Senior Officer warns enquiry team.

That was cool, and also risky. The corrupt ones didn't mess about.
Very good smile, just out of interest what was option 2..

Derek Smith

45,593 posts

248 months

Wednesday 23rd April 2014
quotequote all
joe_90 said:
Very good smile, just out of interest what was option 2..
The problem that many of the straight officers had was whom they could trust. Everyone knew the high profile bent ones but there were many 'sleepers'.

One chap witnessed half a dozen police officers breaking into Austin Reeds in Fenchurch Street. When he refused to receive any of the clothes, he was warned that he should be careful, given that he had a family. He wanted to put them away but had not idea whom he could go to. He was new to the force. In the end he went to our female superintendent, top class woman. It meant that he had to run away to the Isle of Wight so that anyone who did attack him or his family would have the problem of getting off the island. And don't forget that many of the criminals were in league with the corrupt officers.

In many ways it suited the bent ones. It showed that if you did make a stand you had to run away.

So option 2 was, in effect, keep your head down and just be honest. I wouldn't criticise any officer who decided not to risk the welfare of his/her family.

carinaman

21,274 posts

172 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Slaav

4,249 posts

210 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Is it completely wrong to be getting excited?

smile

Megaflow

9,376 posts

225 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Somebody has got to need a soap on a rope surely?

Or what ever the female inmate equivalent is

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Slaav said:
Is it completely wrong to be getting excited?

smile
Schadenfreude is a very wicked thing, but also quite fun.

muffinmenace

1,030 posts

188 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Breadvan72 said:
Schadenfreude
That word isn't used enough

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Atributed to Confucius:

"There is in life no sight more agreeable than that of an old friend falling from a high rooftop."



uk66fastback

16,506 posts

271 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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What with Max Clifford, Stuart Hall back in court, talk of Freddie Starr etc, I'd completely forgotten this was going on!

You only need a world crisis like Ukraine on the news and the upocoming Euro elections, it doesn't take much for this to not even get a mention on the news any more either ... I remember when it started them saying the trial would last until May and you think at the time: "How are they going to drag it out til then etc?" But here we are ...

So what do we all reckon on the verdicts?

anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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I have nary a clue as I haven't followed the evidence. Some here have said that the prosecution failed to nail the connection between the badness and the defendants, and that the defence teams have done a good filibuster and confuse job. Against that, there is the possibility that the jury will just hate the defendants and the style of journalism that they represent so much that they will say screw the evidence and convict anyway.

onyx39

11,120 posts

150 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Breadvan72 said:
I have nary a clue as I haven't followed the evidence. Some here have said that the prosecution failed to nail the connection between the badness and the defendants, and that the defence teams have done a good filibuster and confuse job. Against that, there is the possibility that the jury will just hate the defendants and the style of journalism that they represent so much that they will say screw the evidence and convict anyway.
And thats a problem?

smile

Gargamel

14,968 posts

261 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Breadvan72 said:
Atributed to Confucius:

"There is in life no sight more agreeable than that of an old friend falling from a high rooftop."
I have always preferred, "if you sit by the river for long enough, eventually the body of your enemy will float past"


Gargamel

14,968 posts

261 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
quotequote all
Breadvan72 said:
I have nary a clue as I haven't followed the evidence. Some here have said that the prosecution failed to nail the connection between the badness and the defendants, and that the defence teams have done a good filibuster and confuse job. Against that, there is the possibility that the jury will just hate the defendants and the style of journalism that they represent so much that they will say screw the evidence and convict anyway.
Both are going to jail, Brooks two years, Coulson 4-5 years - Guilty, but not on all charges.


anonymous-user

54 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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onyx39 said:
Breadvan72 said:
I have nary a clue as I haven't followed the evidence. Some here have said that the prosecution failed to nail the connection between the badness and the defendants, and that the defence teams have done a good filibuster and confuse job. Against that, there is the possibility that the jury will just hate the defendants and the style of journalism that they represent so much that they will say screw the evidence and convict anyway.
And thats a problem?

smile
Strictly speaking, yes, it is, as we ought only to bust people on sound evidence, not on the basis of thinking that they are a pretty rum do, but these people have had such a corrosive effect on the body politic that even I might manage to look the other way if there is a perverse guilty verdict. Principles, eh? if you don't like them, I have others.

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 8th May 10:20

kev1974

4,029 posts

129 months

Thursday 8th May 2014
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Gargamel said:
Both are going to jail, Brooks two years, Coulson 4-5 years - Guilty, but not on all charges.
No doubt at the Chris Huhne / Max Clifford holiday camp prison!