Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson phone-hacking trial opens

The first trial from the phone-hacking scandal that sank Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World opened on Monday with his key aide Rebekah Brooks and the prime minister’s former media chief Andy Coulson in the dock.

They are among eight defendants facing a jury for the first time over the scandal two years ago that rocked the British newspaper industry and sent shockwaves through the British establishment.

Brooks, 45, arrived at the Old Bailey court in London to a storm of photographers’ flashes, accompanied by her racehorse trainer husband Charlie, who is also on trial.

Dressed in a camel-coloured coat, Brooks looked relaxed and smiled as she walked into the court building, while her husband wore a smart blue suit.

Coulson, also 45, arrived with his legal team.

The defendants face charges ranging from illegally hacking the mobile phone voicemails of 600 people including a murdered schoolgirl and celebrities such as Paul McCartney and Jude Law, plus bribing public officials for stories and hiding evidence.