Update – A trial date has been set for the head of security at News International Mark Hanna, and security staff Daryl Jorsling and Lee Sandell, along with four others for charges of perverting the course of justice.
The charges relate to allegations that they attempted to hide evidence from the police who were investigating claims of phone hacking by News International’s the News of the World.
They face charges alongside Rebekah Brooks, the former head of the company, and her husband Charlie Brooks, plus Mrs Brooks’s chauffeur Paul Edwards and former personal assistant Cheryl Carter.
They have all been released on bail pending a provisional trial date of 9 September 2013.
The Crown Prosecution Service outlined the charges in May. They were:
Charge one – conspiracy to pervert the course of justice: “Rebekah Brooks between 6 July and 19 July 2011 conspired with Charles Brooks, Cheryl Carter, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards, Daryl Jorsling and persons unknown to conceal material from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service.”
Charge two – conspiracy to pervert the course of justice: “Rebekah Brooks and Cheryl Carter between 6 July and 9 July 2011 conspired together permanently to remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International.”
Charge three – conspiracy to pervert the course of justice: “Rebekah Brooks, Charles Brooks, Mark Hanna, Paul Edwards and Daryl Jorsling conspired together and with persons unknown, between 15 July and 19 July 2011, to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service.”
Sandell was charged in September in relation to the third charge.
“All these matters relate to the on-going police investigation into allegations of phone hacking and corruption of public officials in relation to the News of the World and The Sun newspapers,” said Alison Levitt, QC, principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
