Phone hacking trial hears about reports of two soldiers’ deaths

A senior army officer who initially claimed that The Sun newspaper had gone too early” on publishing a story about a dead soldier before full details were made public later told an Old Bailey trial that he would not have made that claim if he had been shown a relevant document.

Brigadier John Donnelly, director of army personnel strategy, was giving evidence in the phone hacking trial of former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson and six other co-defendants. They deny the charges against them.

Ms Brooks faces five charges, including two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

These two charges allege that while she was editor of The Sun, Ms Brooks approved illegal payments to public officials in exchange for stories. Ms Brooks denies any wrongdoing.

The brigadier initially told the trial that The Sun published a story in October 2007 about the killing of Major Alexis Roberts in Afghanistan, before the army “had the opportunity to fully brief the family” and ahead of the information coming into the public domain. The major had been a platoon commander of Prince William at Sandhurst, the court heard.

However, under cross examination by Jonathan Laidlaw QC representing Ms Brooks, the army chief appeared to backtrack after he was shown a copy of a fatality notice issued by the MoD – after next of kin had been informed – dated the day before The Sun’s story.

He had not seen this document before, he told the court.

“Had you been shown this document by the police officers, would you have made a point in evidence that The Sun had gone too early with the story?” Mr Laidlaw asked the army officer. He replied he would not.

A second Sun story about Corporal Bryan Budd, who died in Afghanistan in 2006, followed an investigation of whether he had been killed by friendly fire. The Sun reported the investigation before it had been fully completed, the army officer told the court.

However, under cross examination, Mr Laidlaw put to him that the information was in a media briefing note containing “lines to take”, if the press asked about the issue.

The Sun article was published on February 16 2007, two days after the briefing note was published, Mr Laidlaw put to Brig Donnelly. The court was told that the soldier’s widow had already been told by this point.

The trial was also taken through a number of articles published in The Sun and was told that on at least two occasions Ms Brooks did not respond to emails from a Sun employee requesting payment for articles from a military source.

The trial continues.