LONDON — In a dramatic new turn in the scandals swirling around Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper outpost, prosecutors said on Tuesday that two former top executives — Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks — will be charged with making corrupt payments to public officials along with an an array of previous accusations.
The development has far-reaching implications for Prime Minister David Cameron, who hired Mr. Coulson, a former editor of The News of the World tabloid, as his director of communications while in opposition and kept him on after coming to power in the 2010 elections. The Labour opposition has frequently accused the prime minister of showing poor judgment.
The Crown Prosecution Service said on Tuesday that Mr. Coulson and Ms. Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, were among five people likely to be charged as part of a police inquiry called Operation Elveden that ran in parallel with other investigations related to a phone hacking scandal that led to the closing of The News of the World.
Among the five were Clive Goodman, a former royal correspondent at T News of the World, who served a brief jail term in 2007 for hacking into voice mail accounts in the royal household.
“We have concluded, following a careful review of the evidence, that Clive Goodman and Andy Coulson should be charged with two conspiracies,” said prosecutor Alison Levitt. “The allegations relate to the request and authorization of payments to public officials in exchange for information, including a palace phone directory known as the ‘Green Book’ containing contact details for the Royal Family and Members of the Household.”
Mr. Coulson was editor of The News of the World from 2003 to 2007, when he became Mr. Cameron’s spokesman until he resigned in 2011 as the hacking scandal intensified.
Ms. Brooks, who was editor of The Sun tabloid between 2003 and 2009, will face charges along with the newspaper’s former chief reporter, John Kay, and an employee of the Defense Ministry, Bettina Jordan Barber. The accusation relates to payments for information said to total around $ 160,000.
In the course of the Operation Elveden investigation, more than 50 people have been arrested; two of them have been told they will face no further action.
Ms. Brooks, 44, is among a group of former Murdoch employees who are to face trial next year on charges related to the scandals at the company.
Altogether, more than 50 former newspaper executives, lawyers, editors, reporters and investigators have been arrested and questioned in extensive police inquiries.
At a court appearance in May, Ms. Brooks was charged along with her husband, a well-known racehorse trainer, and four other people with perverting the course of justice by concealing documents, computers and other evidence from detectives.
In June, she returned to court for a hearing on charges relating to the phone hacking scandal.
And in September, she appeared in court again, this time along with Mr. Coulson, on charges of intercepting communications without lawful authority, including an incident in which News of the World employees broke into the voice mail account of Milly Dowler, a schoolgirl who was murdered.
Before her fall, Ms. Brooks was a close confidante of Mr. Murdoch and one of the most powerful figures in the British news media.
Over nearly 20 years with the company, she rose rapidly to become editor of The News of the World, a weekly, and later of The Sun, Britain’s most widely circulated daily paper, before being promoted to chief executive of News International in 2009.
Former Murdoch Aides to Be Charged With Bribery
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