On Thursday, a judge ruled that former News Corp editor Rebekah Brooks is acquitted of one charge of bribery in relation to the phone hacking scandal at the shuttered News Corp tabloid. The Wall Street Journal said Brooks, who arrived looking stressed but polished nonetheless in her cream blouse and blue skirt and scarf ensemble, said she was acquitted from a single charge of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office. Currently, she is still facing several bribery and conspiracy-related charges, including conspiracy to access voice-mail messages on mobile phones, authorizing illegal payments to public officials and plotting to hamper a follow-up police probe, the newspaper said.
Brooks has pleaded not guilty on all accounts charged against her in relation to a wider probe of phone-hacking at the former News of the World tabloid. The acquittal, said WSJ, was a surprise to anyone who had followed the controversy. It also came at an odd time where Brooks takes the stand in the months-long trial for the first time ever. The newspaper said that defense attorneys has started laying out their case on Thursday after prosecutors rested their case early this week.
WSJ said the acquittal was in relation to the alleged bribes made by the Sun tabloid newspaper to obtain a picture of Prince William in a bikini. Daily Mail said it could be recalled that the Duke of Cambridge, prior to his marriage, donned a bikini at a party that paid homage to the iconic British character, spy James Bond.
Judge John Saunders, who decided on the acquittal of Brooks in one of her bribery charges, reportedly begged off requests to explain his decision to let off Brooks. However, WSJ quoted Saunders, who said that there was considerable uncertainty about the source of the photo.
Saunders stated, "I have decided there is no case for Mrs. Brooks to answer (on that specific count)."
