Brooks on way back as CPS in hacking review

PROSECUTORS are considering whether to bring corporate charges against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper publisher over phone hacking as reports have begun circulating that former editor Rebekah Brooks is to return as chief executive.

The Crown Prosecution Service has received a dossier of evidence assembled against News UK, formerly known as News International.

It came as sources said Ms Brooks, the former News of the World editor who was cleared last year of all charges at the phone hacking trial, is to return, rehabilitated, to head up the publisher as soon as next month. Successor NoTW editor Andy Coulson was among those jailed.

The file was submitted in July by the Metropolitan police following an investigation stretching back to 2011, when the News of the World Sunday tabloid was closed down at the height of the scandal.

A spokeswoman for the CPS said: “We have received a full file of evidence for consideration of corporate liability charges relating to the Operation Weeting phone-hacking investigation.”

The decision comes 19 months after the US Department of Justice told Murdoch’s company it would not face charges in the US.

Also cleared with Ms Brooks was the former managing editor of the News Of The World Stuart Kuttner. A News Corp spokeswoman said: “We have been having discussions with Rebekah Brooks.”

In a statement on Friday, the Met said: “On July 23 following an investigation into phone hacking at the News Of The World, detectives from Operation Weeting submitted a file to the CPS for their consideration.”