Brooks walks but Coulson found guilty

Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and The Sun newspapers, was acquitted yesterday of orchestrating a campaign to hack into phones and bribe officials in the hunt for exclusive news stories.

A jury at London's Old Bailey cleared Brooks but found Andy Coulson, another former editor and Prime Minister David Cameron's former media chief, guilty of being part of the phone-hacking conspiracy.

The conviction will embarrass Cameron: a spokesman said the prime minister would honour the promise to apologise that he had made at the height of the scandal in July 2011.

On hearing the verdict, Brooks showed little emotion but was led out of the court by a nurse and later rushed through a group of photographers into a taxi. She was followed by her husband, Charlie, who was cleared of any attempt to hinder the investigation.

Brooks's lawyer had argued that the prosecution failed to produce a "smoking gun" during her 14 days of intense questioning on the stand, and likened the decision of the authorities to take her to court to a medieval witch-hunt.

She and Coulson had edited the News of the World, the 168-year-old tabloid that media mogul Rupert Murdoch closed in July 2011 amid a public outcry over revelations that journalists had hacked into the voicemails of a murdered schoolgirl.

The scandal shocked Britain's political elite, with prime ministers from both main parties shown to have been close to Murdoch and his senior staff including Brooks. Cameron ordered a public inquiry into press ethics in the immediate aftermath.

Brooks was cleared of being part of a conspiracy to hack into phones , authorising illegal payments to public officials and trying to hinder the police investigation.

Police said there were probably more than 1000 victims of hacking, including Queen Elizabeth's grandsons Princes William and Harry, and William's wife, Kate, and possibly as many as 5500.

Politicians, celebrities, sporting figures and even rival journalists were targeted.