News Of The World final edition. Photograph by Howard Lake
Andy Coulson, former Downing Street spokesman and debuty editor of the News of the World between 2003 and 2007, has pleaded not guilty to charges of phone hacking and bribing public officials.
Coulson is accused of illegally intercepting communications, such as hacking into to the phones of celebrities to listen to their voicemail between 2000 and 2006, as well as making payments for information from public officials in 2003 and 2005.
He entered his pleas of not guilty at Southwark Crown Court and has been released on bail awaiting trial.
The charges were brought as part of the police investigation into the phone hacking scandal that resulted in the closure of the news of the World, called Operation Weeting, and its probe into corrupt payments and bribery to public officials, known as Operation Elveden.