Phone Hacking Trial: The prosecution case concludes

The case for the prosecution at the trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andrew Coulson, Stuart Kuttner, Clive Goodman, Cheryl Carter, Charles Brooks and Mark Hanna concluded on Wednesday 5 February 2014 after 13 weeks.

The trial began on 30 October 2013 with the opening statement from Andrew Edis QC.  This took nearly four days. The jury then heard witness evidence from more than 90 live witnesses along with a mass of documentary evidence. A list of all the witnesses so far – with links to the live tweets of their evidence – can be found here.

There will be a number of days of legal argument and the jury will not return for the defence case until 17 February 2014.  The Judge has indicated that they can expect to have to consider their verdict in mid May.

Despite the mass of prosecution evidence, the main issues can, as James Doleman puts it in his helpful report on the prosecution case “be boiled down to a simple quesiton: what did the defendants know and when did they know it?”

James Doleman is one of a small number of journalists who have reported from the trial every day (or almost every day) since 30 October 2013.  He has posted stories, usually twice a day, on the Drum website.  His daily coverage can be viewed here under the heading “Inside the Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson Trial”.

There have been daily posts on Inforrm from Martin Hickman and regular reports in the Guardian from Lisa O’Carroll and Nick Davies and from the BBC (which has a helpful “Who’s who” of the defendants).

The indispensable #pressreform blog has assiduously posted daily tweets and numerous links to press reports and related stories.  This coverage has been kept up for a remarkable 51 of the 53 days on which the jury heard evidence.

Finally, and most comprehensively, there have been Peter Jukes’ crowd-funded live tweets from the Old Bailey.  These are gathered together in a full trial summary of the first thirteeen weeks.  Peter Jukes’ blog also has a helpful list of the Defendants and the Charges.  Peter Jukes has also produced a Flipboard compilation, “Hacking Trial and Background“.

All the defendants deny the charges.