Former Murdoch lieutenant Brooks arrested over hacking scandal

FORMER Murdoch chief executive Rebekah Brooks was last night arrested by police on charges of conspiring to intercept communications and corruption allegations, thought to be payments to police.
Police questioned the former News International boss at a London police station where she was arrested and detained. She was questioned by police from two separation investigations, the one into hacking, Operation Weeting, and Operation Elvedon, which is looking into bribery of police.
A spokesman for Mrs Brooks said she had been told on Friday, after her resignation, that she would be arrested.

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Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks. Photo: AP

Mark Lewis, the lawyer for Milly Dowler's family, said questions had to be asked about the timing of the arrest because Mrs Brooks had been due to be questioned by a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
''Undoubtedly she will have the option of saying on Tuesday 'I'm sorry I can't answer that because I'm under police investigation','' he said. ''The timing stinks … It gives the impression that those questions can't be asked [now] … It looks deliberate.''
The House of Commons select committee had maintained that it would take care not to canvass material that affected any criminal investigations, and Mrs Brooks now appears to be protected by that.
Commentator Michael White of The Guardian, the paper that has led the phone-hacking exposes, told the BBC he thought this was a piece of grand-standing on the part of police trying to divert attention from serious questions about police behaviour that had dominated that morning's headlines.
''This is a bit of showbiz by the police,'' he said. ''The Met want to take the heat off themselves.'' He said this kind of behaviour had been seen in previous cases where police tried to over-compensate for previous failures to act: ''This is laying it on with a trowel.''
Mrs Brooks, formerly a favourite of Rupert Murdoch, resigned on Friday last week over the phone-hacking scandal. She edited the now-defunct News of the World newspaper during the period in which it hacked the voicemail of a murdered 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, and also edited The Sun, which actor Jude Law has accused of voicemail hacking. Mrs Brooks has denied any knowledge of hacking. She was on holiday when Milly's voicemail was intercepted.
Mr Murdoch's Australian newspapers include the Herald Sun and The Australian.
Former deputy editor of News of the World Paul Connew
said the timing of the arrest was surprising given her scheduled appearance before the committee. It followed the pattern of other potential suspects or witnesses, ''But I'm a bit surprised it happened before Tuesday … It begs the question of whether she will be much more inhibited in what she will say.''
News International made no comment. Rupert Murdoch was believed to be in his London flat working with lawyers to prepare for his appearance before the parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Police are expected to arrest up to a dozen more people in the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, British Opposition Leader Ed Miliband has called for Murdoch's British media empire to be broken up, saying it has ''too much power over British public life''.
Mr Miliband said he would push for cross-party agreement on new media ownership laws because the company's response to the News of the World phone hacking scandal was not enough to restore trust and reassure the public. ''I think we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 per cent of the newspaper market, the Sky [cable TV] platform and Sky News,'' he told The Observer newspaper. ''That amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation. If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous.''
His remarks came as it emerged that the head of the parliamentary committee that is to grill James and Rupert Murdoch and Mrs Brooks this week has ties to two senior News executives.
Conservative MP John Whittingdale admitted he was an old friend of Rupert Murdoch's former top adviser, Les Hinton, and had links to Mr Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth. He had also been to dinner with Mrs Brooks.
In other developments:
■It was claimed Mrs Brooks had told Prime Minister David Cameron to dump plans to hire a former BBC journalist as his director of communications and to hire ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson instead.
■The board of BSkyB scheduled a meeting on July 28 to discuss James Murdoch's future role.
■A police chief was revealed to have holidayed for free in a spa promoted by an ex-News of the World editor.
■English actor Jude Law is suing Rupert Murdoch's The Sun, claiming it hacked his phone.
■News International made a fresh apology for the phone-hacking scandal in national newspapers.
Further embarrassing Mr Cameron as he tries to distance himself from the Murdochs, it was alleged Mrs Brooks told Mr Cameron the role of his media adviser should go to someone who was ''acceptable'' to News International. The Mail on Sunday quoted unnamed Conservative Party and News International sources as saying the PM was told it would strengthen party ties with the company.


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