Coulson & Brooks hacking trial starts today

[Steffan]

matchmaker said:

Moonhawk said:

Meh - he'll be out in 6 months and will probably make a mint selling his story.

Very possibly he will be sewing mailbags for a lot longer...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-28199829

BBC said:

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is to appear in court on 6 August to face perjury charges over the Tommy Sheridan trial.

Mr Coulson has been indicted to appear at the High Court in Glasgow.

Mr Coulson, 46, was charged two years ago after being questioned in Glasgow in connection with his evidence at the Tommy Sheridan trial in 2010.

He had given evidence as a witness during Sheridan's perjury trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

I await developments with interest!

I remeber an accountant pal who knew Coulson well describing Coulson as a first class st and someone he would never allow in the house. Which for an accountant s pretty strong stuff. I remember the Tommy Sheridan trial and when he won his appeal it became obvious that the testimony of Couson and others must have been outright lies. Perjury in fact. I will be pleased for the Dowler family, who have been seriously wronged by Coulson and others, if someone gets serious time who was involved with the disgraceful Dowler business and Coulson looks a prime candidate. Serves him right.

[Eric Mc]

Are you suggesting that accountants might not have much in the way of morals?

[Zod]

I know a lawyer who became friends with Coulson. Their kids were at the same school. Now I suspect the lawyer was motivated, in part at least, by the networking opportunities he perceived(that is very much the kind of person he is), but to his credit he and his wife have helped out Coulson's family over the last couple of years. The bit that gets forgotten is the wife and children. They are innocent and have suffered and will continue to do so. It's Coulson's own fault, of course.

Anyway, my point is that the lawyer in question says that Coulson is a pleasant, normal person.

[Eric Mc]

He's probably on commission to pick up some clients for his lawyer friend whilst he's inside.

All sorts of not so nice people can be perfectly acceptable in "pleasant" company.

[Zod]

Eric Mc said:

He's probably on commission to pick up some clients for his lawyer friend whilst he's inside.

All sorts of not so nice people can be perfectly acceptable in "pleasant" company.

The man is a corporate lawyer, so although not impossible, it's unlikely that Coulson will find him any clients.

[Eric Mc]

Prison isn't entirely populated by safe breakers and crack addicts.

[Dr Jekyll]

The Don of Croy said:

heebeegeetee said:

Fair enough, but I do remain gobsmacked at how lightly he has got off. The Milly Dowler aspect alone should mean he goes away for years, it was an appalling thing to do.

I've heard people mention this muchly - but is it confirmed that NoTW staff tampered with the phone record? Or was there some doubt as it could have been the telecom company automatically deleting an over-full message facility (or something else?)?

It hasn't been confirmed, there was never any evidence that they had, so the Guardian cling to the fact that it is hasn't been proven the NOTW didn't delete records. What the NOTW did do was interpret a message to mean that Milly was alive and working at a particular location, but fail to tell police or relatives because they were hoping for a scoop. The message was a wrong number about a totally different girl so it's doubtful this really made any practical difference.

[ninja-lewis]

Steffan said:

I remember the Tommy Sheridan trial and when he won his appeal it became obvious that the testimony of Couson and others must have been outright lies. Perjury in fact.

Sheridan hasn't won any appeal and remains unlikely to do so. Calling Coulson was nothing more than a fishing expedition by Sheridan - not least because the story was in the Scottish NOTW (which had a separate Scottish editor) and had nothing to do with Coulson. Sheridan simply used it as an opportunity to ask about the generic phone hacking and payments to police officers allegations (this being very shortly before Coulson resigned from Number 10).

Sheridan was ultimately convicted because 16 of his former party colleagues gave evidence that he had admitted at a party meeting that the original NOTW story (about visiting a sex club in Manchester) was true. Coulson was and remains irrelevant to Sheridan's conviction.

[The Hypno-Toad]

Private Eye is very interesting reading today. Maybe just me reading too much into what they've printed but they seem not at all surprised that the jury's verdict was delivered just after they went to press two weeks ago.

The restrictions that the defendants wanted on jury members was interesting as well. The defence wanted to make sure that no potential juror was a member of a union or had any link to the left-wing press as they felt this would clearly prejudice their verdict.

All of Brooks' legal bills were picked up by NI, Coulson had to take them to court to honour their contractual obligation to pay his.

There was directive issued at the time Brooks was in charge that all emails on the NI servers up to 01/01/2010 were to be deleted because it was slowing down the servers. But luckily nothing that would be of any future legal importance was deleted in the purge of millions of messages.

When the police searched the Brooks country estate, they didn't find a single electric device capable of sending or receiving email. Given that Mrs Brooks used to use this method of communications so much that she sent emails to people during meetings who were sitting in the same office as her at the same time is surprising.
A number of smartphones which, during 2010-2011, were used frequently at her country estate remain missing.

With the deletion of all of this correspondence (and the removal of seven boxes marked as containing her notebooks from the News International archive just before the hacking story broke.) I feel sorry for her because there are going to be huge sections in any future autobiography that are presumably going to have to be left blank.

Interestingly, as the final selection of the jurors was announced, Brooks could be seen furiously scribing their details down. But of course I'm sure, as Private Eye suggests, this was just her journalistic instincts kicking in.

Just a reminder that Ms Brooks has been found innocent of all the charges brought against her.

[Motorrad]

The Hypno-Toad said:

said stuff

You don't come across as a terribly trusting soul. I suspect you might have something against ginger people and so no doubt would RB and her friends

[Justin Cyder]

Nick Davies who exposed all of this has written a book. This extract is to say the least, an eye opener on how Coulson ran his newsroom.

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/jul/28...

[12TS]

And now for the Mirror.

http://order-order.com/2014/07/28/mirror-readies-p...

I can but hope Moron will get dragged into all this.

[Zod]

12TS said:

And now for the Mirror.

http://order-order.com/2014/07/28/mirror-readies-p...

I can but hope Moron will get dragged into all this.

I take it that is a reference to Cameron.

The offences happened under a Labour government, one that toadied up to the Murdoch press until the moment that the Sun withdrew support from Brown.

[Justin Cyder]

Zod said:

I take it that is a reference to Cameron. The offences happened under a Labour government.

Piers Moron, Shirley?

[12TS]

Justin Cyder said:

Piers Moron, Shirley?

[greygoose]

Zod said:

12TS said:

And now for the Mirror.

http://order-order.com/2014/07/28/mirror-readies-p...

I can but hope Moron will get dragged into all this.

I take it that is a reference to Cameron.

The offences happened under a Labour government, one that toadied up to the Murdoch press until the moment that the Sun withdrew support from Brown.

Wrong Moron.

[Steffan]

Justin Cyder said:

Nick Davies who exposed all of this has written a book. This extract is to say the least, an eye opener on how Coulson ran his newsroom.

http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/jul/28...

Perhaps the most serious concern for the electorate is that David Cameron in one of his daft moments brought someone with that reputation and appalling approach into government at the highest level. What does that say about the judgment of Cameron? Nothing good and clearly Cameron seeks success much more than ethical conduct. I hope the stupidity and lack of wisdom in that choice by Cameron is understood and a matter of concern within the Conservative party. Sadly it would seem all the Tories are concerned about is staying on the gravy train personally in common with the whole of modern politics. Getting elected and making as much as you can personally from your time in office seems to be the new approach of all UK politicians. Given the vicious back stabber in charge of Labour currently what hope is there?

[Zod]

12TS said:

Justin Cyder said:

Piers Moron, Shirley?

Oh, apologies in that case. And I very much agree with you!!

[Derek Smith]

Zod said:

The offences happened under a Labour government, one that toadied up to the Murdoch press . . .

Thank goodness Cameron, Gove, May et al don't do that sort of thing.

[Halmyre]

The Hypno-Toad said:

Private Eye is very interesting reading today. Maybe just me reading too much into what they've printed but they seem not at all surprised that the jury's verdict was delivered just after they went to press two weeks ago.

Did you see the bit that said Coulson's sharing a cell with an ex-colleague who's inside partly because of him? Bet that's a chilly atmosphere.