Beyond Contempt
Canbury Press (Verlag)
978-0-9930407-1-9 (ISBN)
'A must read for anyone who wants to understand not only our media, but power in Britain' – Owen Jones, author of The Establishment
What really happened in Court 12 at the Old Bailey — when the world’s most powerful tabloid empire finally faced the law?
When the News of the World collapsed in disgrace and the phone hacking scandal exploded across Britain, the headlines were loud, the leaks were selective, and the truth was buried under spin. Then came the phone hacking trial: 130 days of evidence, legal trench warfare, and an unprecedented battle between corporate money and public justice.
In Beyond Contempt, writer and journalist Peter Jukes takes you behind the courtroom doors to reveal the story you could not read at the time. Because during a live criminal trial, strict contempt of court rules mean the most explosive arguments, documents, and backstage manoeuvres are often legally unreportable — until the verdict.
This is not a recycled recap of what you already saw on the news. It’s the inside story of what was happening when the cameras weren’t there: the embargoed legal submissions, the arguments held in the jury’s absence, the tactical delays and surprise disclosures, and the constant, nail-biting tension between open justice and the right to a fair trial.
Jukes was there day after day, live-reporting the proceedings as they unfolded, and he turns that frontline perspective into a gripping narrative that reads like a political thriller — but is anchored in the realities of British justice, press power, and modern surveillance. From the hacking of celebrities and politicians to the targeting of the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, from the Royal Family to Downing Street, the trial exposed how far a newspaper would go to get a story — and how hard it is for the law to catch up.
You’ll step into the Old Bailey as senior News International figures — including Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson— fight charges linked to phone hacking, bribery allegations, and alleged attempts to conceal evidence. You’ll see why this courtroom battle rippled through policing, Parliament, and public trust—and why the judge warned that “not only the defendants are on trial… British justice is on trial.”
You’ll discover:
• The behind-the-scenes legal battles, embargoed documents, and strategic manoeuvres that shaped what the jury could hear — and what the public could not.
• How the machinery of a Sunday tabloid really worked: payments, “sources,” voicemail interception, and the newsroom culture behind the scoops.
• The human drama of a marathon trial: the witnesses, the rivalries, the humour, the exhaustion — and the moments that threatened to derail the entire case.
• Why social media changed court reporting forever, and how one wrong tweet could mean contempt of court, a collapsed trial, or prison.
• What the phone hacking scandal reveals about privacy, press freedom, and corporate influence — and why it still matters.
Praise for Beyond Contempt:
“Top court reporting.” —Nick Davies, Guardian
“A vital and essential read for everyone who cares about journalism and justice.” —Nigel Pauley, Daily Star
“Utterly compelling.” —Emer O’Farrell, reader
Perfect for readers of investigative journalism, political scandal, media law, and high-stakes courtroom drama, this is the book that connects Fleet Street, Parliament, and the Old Bailey in one relentless narrative — written by the man whose real-time reporting became required reading across newsrooms and Westminster.
Get your copy of Beyond Contempt today and experience the trial that changed British journalism.
Read it for the facts. Remember it for the power games behind the stories.
Reviews
'Remarkable. I feel I now know all the key players and why some defendants were found guilty and some not, despite never having spent a minute at the trial.' – Professor Stewart Purvis, former editor of ITN
'Written in a chatty, gossipy style that brings the courtroom drama alive.' – Nigel Pauley, journalist, Daily Star
Extract
Preface: The Untold Story
‘There has never been any trial like this,’ a defence barrister told me during a smoking break outside the main doors of the Old Bailey – a place where a surprising number of journalists, lawyers and detectives congregated. He added: ‘There will never be another trial like this.’
Weeks before the phone hacking trial began in October 2013 the Daily Telegraph commentator Peter Oborne billed it as ‘the trial of the century.’ Yet it had taken almost the whole of the century so far to arrive. Two years had already passed since the News of the World closed in 2011 and eleven years since the newspaper had hacked the mobile phone of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
In a sense it was, as one prosecutor described it, ‘the trial nobody wanted.’ In 2006, the Metropolitan Police had limited its inquiries into hacking to avoid a high-profile trial, partly to spare the Royal Family embarrassment. Neither the defendants nor their employer, News International (since re-branded News UK) wanted an Old Bailey showdown. And for all the glamour of some of the targets of hacking, compared to other famous murder or terrorism trials, the stakes could seem small: there were no dead bodies, no violent attacks against other individuals, or attempts to overturn the state.
Yet, the state was, somehow, at risk. Two of Britain’s most senior police officers had resigned in the wake of the hacking scandal in 2011. Rebekah Brooks, former Murdoch protégé and not so long ago arguably the most powerful woman in Britain, had achieved the extraordinary feat of being friend to three successive prime ministers. Andy Coulson, her deputy and successor as News of the World editor, had been the Prime Minister’s director of communications at Number 10. Meanwhile the News of the World’s hacking victims ranged from actors and footballers to Cabinet ministers and princes. The tabloid had a reputation for exposing the private secrets of the rich and famous, without fear or favour; the trial promised to be as sensational as its front pages. When the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, warned in his opening remarks that not only the defendants but also ‘British justice is on trial,’ he might well have been concerned that intense media interest in such high-profile defendants could generate coverage that would improperly influence the jury.
The trial was unique in other ways...
Peter Jukes is a British journalist and screenwriter. His television credits include devising and writing In Deep (subsequently developed with Paul Haggis for the USA network), the first two episodes of the the first series of the Emmy award winning Waking the Dead, BAFTA award winning Sea of Souls, and the first episodes of Inspector Lynley with original storylines. As a journalist he has written regularly for various newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, New Statesman, The Daily Beast, Politico, The New Republic and was nominated for several awards for his coverage of the phone hacking trial in London, the longest and most expensive criminal trial in British history, recounted in his book Beyond Contempt. He is co-author of Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed and director of the Byline Festival. His 2012 book, The Fall of the House of Murdoch, was described by the former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans as “a roaring great read.” His account of living in the modern city, A Shout in the Street (Faber & Faber, 1990), was called “a dream of a book” by John Berger. He lives in London.
PREFACE: THE UNTOLD STORY. Weeks before the phone hacking trial begins in October 2013 the Daily Telegraph commentator Peter Oborne bills it as ‘the trial of the century.’ Yet it has taken almost the whole of the century so far to arrive, two years since the closure of the News of the World
CHARGES. Full list of the charges and particulars facing IAN EDMONDSON, REBEKAH BROOKS, ANDREW COULSON, STUART KUTTNER, CLIVE GOODMAN, CHERYL CARTER, CHARLES BROOKS and MARK HANNA. The various charges may be summarised as hacking, bribing and hiding evidence
LEGAL TEAMS. Prosecution: Andrew Edis QC, Mark Bryant-Heron QC. Rebekah Brook: Jonathan Laidlaw QC. Andrew Coulson: Timothy Langdale QC. Stuart Kuttner: Jonathan Caplan QC. Clive Goodman: David Spens QC. Cheryl Carter: Trevor Burke QC. Charles Brooks: Neil Saunders. Mark Hanna: William Clegg QC
1. NOT WAR AND PEACE. We get the full story about the phone hacking trial, such as the unreported pre-trial hearings at Southwark Crown Court. The defence teams argue that under human rights law, the prosecution should not reveal an affair between two defendants: Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks
2. PASSION AND PREJUDICE. The judge, Justice Saunders, a leading advocate of live coverage of criminal trials and ‘open justice', allows reporters to live tweet proceedings. He says: 'In this case in a way not only are the defendants on trial, but British justice is on trial'
3. SEX, LIES AND VOICEMAIL. The jury hears the News of the World hacked Sven-Goran Eriksson, Faria Alam, Andy Gilchrist, David Blunkett, Kimberly Quinn, Delia Smith, Wayne Rooney, Patricia Tierney, Laura Rooney, Tessa Jowell, David Mills, Lord Prescott, Mark Oaten, Paul McCartney, Heather Mills
4. DEMOLITION JOB. The trial is taken deep inside the machinery of the News of the World: the paper paid private investigator and phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire £100,000 a year. Court 12 hears from witness Andy Gadd, another private investigator or ‘trace agent’ employed by News of the World
5. MISTRIAL OF THE CENTURY. The long trial is under strain. Jurors take time off for doctor appointments and funerals. Stuart Kuttner, who has suffered a heart attack and a brain stem stroke since the hacking scandal broke, is rarely in the dock. Clive Goodman suffers from heart problems
6. I’LL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT. The judge overturns defence objections to rule the jury can hear from News of the World reporter turned prosecution witness, Dan Evans. Hollywood actors Jude Law and Sienna Miller will testify about the impact of Rupert Murdoch's newspapers
7. HOSTILE WITNESS. The courts hears how Wapping was rife with hacking. Among the many victims of Glenn Mulcaire, police found evidence in his logs and notebooks that he had gone after the phone call voicemails of senior editors at News International, including Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks
8. THE OFFICE CAT. After months of anticipation among defendants and journalists, Daniel Evans, phone hacking star reporter at the Sunday Mirror then News of the World steps into the witness box on 27 January 2014. He says even the office cat at Rupert Murdoch's Sunday newspaper knew about its hacking
9. INTERLUDE: THE TRIAL THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. After the prosecution rests its case on 5 February after 13 weeks of evidence. Unbeknownst to the jury who are sent home, the defence teams begin a concerted attempt to throw out the trial, arguing that there is no case to answer. They fail
10. HOLDING COURT. Rebekah Brooks, former News of the World and Sun editor, now chief executive of News International, gives evidence. She is flawless. Jukes says: 'If it was a carefully scripted performance (as Andrew Edis QC later implied) it was the performance of her life.'
11. ROGUE MALE. Wracked by ill-health, Clive Goodman enters the witness box to deny allegations he corrupted public officials while Royal Editor of the News of the World. 'By 2005, Coulson was chastising him for being ‘way off the pace’ and telling him to ‘find a means to get into the young royals'
12. COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE. Goodman is taken ill during cross-examination. With Goodman unable to give evidence, the trial hears from three Operation Sacha defendants: Cheryl Carter, Charlie Brooks and Mark Hanna, accused of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice of the hacking cases
13. LAST MAN STANDING. It's 14 April 2014 and Andrew Coulson gives evidence. Like Like Brooks’ lawyer before him, Coulson’s, Langdale, starts with a biographical sketch, then goes through every jot of the Crown’s evidence. He cannot remember many things "at this distance"
14. ROUTE TO VERDICT. The judge tells the jury the legal issues for six counts. This ‘route to verdict’ is essentially a flow diagram of the logical steps in assessing each count and defendant. A model of clarity, it shows the jury the hurdles they will have to clear to reach a guilty verdict
15. BACK IN THE BOX. The collapse of part of the trial is narrowly averted when Goodman returns from a bout of pneumonia. In 2007, he says there '‘wasn’t a significant story in the News of the World for the last two years that wasn’t the result’ of phone hacking
16. TRUTH'S BOOTS. The tannoy sounds in the Old Bailey: 'All parties in Brooks and others to Court 12.' After seven months, this is the moment of truth. You could hear a pin drop as the defendants, barristers, journalists and the public at the 'Trial of the Century' hear the jury's verdicts
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Thanking David Hencke, Dominic Ponsford, Meirion Jones, Paul Cheston, Eliot Higgins, Nico Hines, Harry Evans, Brian Cathcart, Tom Latchem, Mike Giglio, Marian Wilkinson, Helen Lewis, Louise Roug, Stefan Stern, Angela Haggerty, David Donovan, Jeremy Vine, Mark Williams Thomas
INDEX. A full index of the hacking case including defendants and witnesses. The As are: A Comedy of Errors, A Few Good Men, Actus reus, Akers Sue, Alam Faria, Allen Lily, Angiogram, Article 8 ECHR, Asprey Helen, Associated Press, Attorney General
SUPPORTERS. A list of the crowdfunders who funded Peter Jukes's reporting of the phone hacking in this book. Jukes separately crowdfunded his live-tweeting of the case at the Old Bailey in London – the first such funding of the live reporting of a UK criminal trial, at the start of the Patreon age
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 14.2.2015 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 1 iondex; glossary |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 129 x 198 mm |
| Gewicht | 242 g |
| Themenwelt | Informatik ► Netzwerke ► Sicherheit / Firewall |
| Recht / Steuern ► EU / Internationales Recht | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Privatrecht / Bürgerliches Recht ► Berufs-/Gebührenrecht | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Privatrecht / Bürgerliches Recht ► Medienrecht | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Kriminologie | |
| Recht / Steuern ► Strafrecht ► Strafverfahrensrecht | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Journalistik | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung | |
| Wirtschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-9930407-1-3 / 0993040713 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-9930407-1-9 / 9780993040719 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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