British prosecutors Tuesday charged Prime Minister David Cameron’s ex-media chief Andy Coulson and former tabloid editor Rebekah Brooks with phone hacking as the scandal lapped at Downing Street’s door. The Crown Prosecution Service announced that eight people, all either current or former employees of Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World tabloid, would face charges of illegal interception of voicemails. The eight will face charges of conspiring to unlawfully intercept the voicemail messages of some 600 people, including Hollywood stars Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jude Law as well as politicians and crime victims. Prosecutors said the other people targeted included England footballer Wayne Rooney and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. “I have concluded that a prosecution is required in the public interest in relation to each of these eight suspects,” senior prosecutor Alison Levitt said in a live televised announcement. The others facing charges include Stuart Kuttner, the News of the World’s former managing editor, former news editor Greg Miskiw, former head of news Ian Edmonson, former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, and reporter James Weatherup. The last person is private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed for phone hacking for six months in in 2007. Australian-born media tycoon Murdoch, 81, was forced to close the News of the World last July amid a storm of revelations that its staff hacked into the voicemail messages of a murdered schoolgirl and a slew of public figures. Coulson, 44, edited the News of the World from 2003 to 2007 and went to become Cameron’s spokesman, but resigned in January 2011 after he was questioned over the scandal.
