Rebekah Brooks arrives at The Old Bailey law court in London, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Former News of the World national newspaper editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are due to go on trial Monday, along with several others, on charges relating to the hacking of phones and bribing officials while at the now closed tabloid paper. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
November 05, 2013 - 8:16 AM
LONDON - A police detective says staff at the News of the World tabloid told his force that they had listened to the voicemails of a missing 13-year-old nine years before the revelation became public and shook Rupert Murdoch's media empire.
In a statement read in court Tuesday, Kevin McEntee of Surrey Police said managing editor Stuart Kuttner told him in 2002 that the newspaper had heard a message left for Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.
Police at the time did not investigate the newspaper. The hacking became public in 2011, sparking a scandal that led Murdoch to close the News of the World.
Kuttner is on trial alongside former News of the World editors Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks and five others. All have pleaded not guilty.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013