According to the lawyer of the former editor of two of the tabloids owned by News Corp, the media's excessive and biased reporting about his client had failed to secure her a fair trial on charges that she allegedly conspired to bribe public officials and hack phones.
During is closing speech today, Jonathan Laidlaw told jurors, "(The seven-month trial has) been conducted against a backdrop of significant attention from the media. (The coverage has been full of) criticism and comment through inaccuracies and bias to downright cruelty and vitriol. She has started at a disadvantage, some yards behind the starting line and she can't win."
Brooks is among the seven people accused of a variety of wrongdoing at the News Corp's Sun and News of the World local papers.
Laidlaw also said in his argument that the prosecutors and the police had adopted a theory first-evidence later attitude in prosecuting his client, Bloomberg reported. He slammed the statements made against his client, and emphasized that the plaintiffs' side at one point brought in at least one witness who lied in court.
Laidlaw also praised Brooks' leadership in both tabloids, highlighting the fact that there are only two incidents of phone hacking out of the 550 requests made to a private investigator by reporters during her tenure. Moreover, he also stated that the practice of phone hacking appeared to have not followed Brooks, if she did concede, upon her takeover of the daily Sun tabloid in 2003.
On the subject of her illicit affair with the Andy Coulson, who is also one of the defendants in the trial, Laidlaw downplayed the romance. He said, "We all know in the immediate aftermath of a breakup of a relationship there can be a tendency to overemphasize the importance of what you have lost, even to yourself."
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