Hacking trial: Rebekah Brooks ‘had list of alleged victims’

Rebekah Brooks arriving at the Old Bailey last week (Getty Images)

A notebook containing the names of alleged phone-hacking victims was found by police at the London home of Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charles, the Old Bailey heard.

The existence of the notebook, which contained the names of royal aides Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton and Paddy Harverson, was disclosed as police gave details of items seized when detectives searched Ms Brooks’ homes and offices.

They said the notebook was discovered, along with a torn-up draft of a resignation letter found in a bin, at the couple’s flat in Chelsea, west London, shortly after she stepped down as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s media group News International in July 2011.

The searches were followed eight months later by a second raid on the Brooks’s weekend home in Oxfordshire by officers investigating an alleged conspiracy to pervert justice, jurors heard.

The 10 officers taking part in the dawn raid in March 2012 were helped by Ms Brooks, who pointed out property they might want to take away, the court was told. Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, who represents Ms Brooks, said her husband, a racehorse-trainer, was concerned for his 81-year-old mother living next door as the search continued at 5am.

Detective Constable Karyn Millar, one of the officers, said Mr Brooks was allowed to call his mother before police knocked on her door.

Mr Laidlaw accused police of leaking news of the search, which was reported on television not long after officers arrived. He said Ms Brooks said at the time: “We did not know this was going to happen. We have given our phones. It must have been you, the police, that are leaking this.”

Police seized a laptop, two iPads, two BlackBerry mobile phones and four iPods. One of the items taken was examined and returned after the searches in 2011.

Ms Brooks, 44, and her husband, 50, both of Churchill, Oxfordshire, deny conspiring to pervert justice between 15 July and 19 July 2011.

Seven defendants deny all the charges against them. The trial continues.