UK Jury Clears Brooks In Phone Hacking Case, Holds Coulson Guilty - Update

(RTTNews) - A UK Jury on Tuesday acquitted Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News Corp (NWS, NWSA)'s British newspaper unit, of overseeing a campaign to hack into phones and bribe officials.

Nonetheless, the Jury at London's Old Bailey found Andy Coulson, Brooks' former lover and Prime Minister David Cameron's then media chief, guilty of conspiring to clandestinely gather information about celebrities and victims of crime.

The conviction has turned out to be an embarrassment for Cameron who hired Coulson in 2007, coming as it did after Coulson already quit one of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers amid the hacking scandal.

Brooks was cleared of all four counts that she stood accused of, including allegations of phone hacking, bribery and two counts of obstruction of justice.

Jurors also found Brooks' husband, her personal assistant, a security director at News Corp's UK division and a former managing editor at the News of the World not guilty.

Both Coulson and Brooks were former editors of the News of the World, the 168-year-old tabloid Murdoch closed in July 2011 amid revelations that journalists hacked into the voice mails of many people.

The scandal emerged in November 2006 when the tabloid's former royal editor Clive Goodman and its private detective Glenn Mulcaire admitted hacking the phones of aides to the royal family.

The scandal shocked Britain's political elite and Cameron had ordered a public inquiry into press ethics.

Meanwhile, the jury is still deliberating over whether Coulson sanctioned illegal payments to public officials to generate news for the now defunct tabloid.

As for News Corp, the company still faces a series of legal challenges in criminal and civil courts.

News Corp stock is trading at $17.60, up $0.23 or 1.35%, on a volume of 1 million shares on the Nasdaq.