David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson and ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks appeared at the Old Bailey today accused of making corrupt payments to public officials.

David Cameron's former spin doctor Andy Coulson and ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks appeared in court today to face charges linked to alleged corrupt payments to public officials.

David Cameron’s former communications director, Andy Coulson, conspired to bribe public officials to secure the phone numbers of the Royal Family, according to the charges against him announced today.

A senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence was on the payroll of the Sun for almost a decade, prosecutors claimed as they charged the former editor of Britain’s best-selling newspaper, Rebekah Brooks, and its chief reporter with plotting to bribe public officials.

The day of reckoning over phone hacking is almost upon us and almost the entire former hierarchy of News International will be standing in the dock. No wonder Rupert Murdoch quietly dropped his directorship of the company at the weekend.

A private investigator embroiled in a tabloid newspaper phone-hacking scandal today failed in a bid to keep secret the name of the journalist who instructed him to intercept messages.

Former News of the World editor Colin Myler said today he "stands by" his evidence after he was accused of misleading MPs.

Private detective says he was made a journalist by NOTW so paper could claim it did not employ outside investigators

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator used by the News of the World to hack voicemails, told the paper's chief lawyer as early as 2007 that he had been instructed by the paper's former news editor as well as its royal reporter, a court heard yesterday.

There was "nothing exotic, unusual or improper" in an arrangement in which News Group Newspapers would pay private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's legal fees, a judge heard today.

Internal emails show that News International tried to influence the prosecution of former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman for phone hacking, the Leveson Inquiry heard today.

The publisher of the Mail on Sunday yesterday denied Hugh Grant's allegations at the Leveson Inquiry that key details obtained by the paper about his personal life could only have been obtained by the illegal interception of his voicemails.

Evidence suggests practice went beyond News International

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