News Corp Hacking Jury Starts Deliberations

After seven months of testimony and legal arguments, jurors in the News Corp phone-hacking trial started deliberations.

“You are under no pressure of time,” Judge John Saunders said, sending the jury out to deliberate their verdicts after 130 court days since the trial began in late October. “You have to reach your verdicts according to the evidence.”

Rebekah Brooks, the 46-year-old former editor of the News of the World, is one of seven people on trial for phone hacking and bribing public officials by journalists at the company’s Sun and News of the World newspapers.

News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch closed the News of the World in 2011 in a bid to temper public outrage over the hacking of the phone of Milly Dowler. Brooks, who headed News Corp’s UK unit, is charged with conspiracy to intercept voice mails, conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and two counts of perverting the course of justice.