News of the World editor was active in phone hacks, court told

Rebekah Brooks, the editor of Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News Of The World, was ''active'' in a conspiracy to hack phones which led to the demise of the popular tabloid, the Old Bailey heard today.

Brooks and Andy Coulson, Prime Minister David Cameron's former media chief, oversaw a system of phone-hacking and illegal payments to officials when they ran News Of The World. Brooks approved ''quite large sums'' of money to public officials for information after she was appointed to edit The Sun – another Murdoch paper, state prosecutor Andrew Edis told the jury.

The proceedings occurred as the prosecution today began opening its case against Brooks, who became chief executive of News International, and Andy Coulson, who was later David Cameron's communications chief.

Andrew Edis QC, for the Crown, told jurors, "This is the phone hacking trial, but it is not only the phone hacking trial, as you already know … It has arisen out of an investigation which started in January 2011 into phone hacking at the News Of The World. That investigation uncovered other things against various people.''

Edis further said, "The investigation and discoveries resulted in the closure of the News Of The World. That came about because of the discovery that the phone of (murdered schoolgirl) Milly Dowler had been hacked."

He said Brooks had been the editor of News Of The World and during this period was "active in the conspiracy" to hack phones.

Later, while editing the Sunday tabloid's daily sister paper The Sun, she also approved ''quite large sums'' of money to officials for information, the court heard.

The prosecutor went on to outline charges of perverting the course of justice in the dying days of News Of The World, which was closed in the summer of 2011 (See: Scandal-hit News of the World shuts down after 168 years).  .

Edis pointed out that phone hacking became a crime in 2000, and was defined by law as ''unlawful interception of communications''.

''In this case that mean listening to other people's voicemails without their consent, by usually finding the pass code that they need in order to listen to phone messages which have been left for them by someone else.

''The News of the World hired a man who was very good at getting hold of other people's codes. He was called Glenn Mulcaire - you are going to hear a lot about him,'' Edis said.

The prosecutor said it was not right for newspaper journalists to ''corrupt'' public officials by giving them money for information. ''Where there is a payment it is always a crime,'' he said.

The public figures targeted by the papers included musician Sir Paul McCartney, formerly a leader of The Beatles, and his late wife Heather Mills as well as Jude Law and Siena Miller, the jury heard.