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A Gotcha moment for Rebekah

Such a paradox!    Here is Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of The Sun - a newspaper which knew no bounds of decency let alone "operating" within the law - slamming the media as a result of being arrested and now charged with perverting the course of justice.

Paul Barry on Crikey about "our" Rebekah!...

"Gotcha! Rupert Murdoch's favourite editor, Rebekah Brooks, has been charged with perverting the course of justice and will face a jury trial that could send her to jail.

The charges allege she withheld documents and computer files from police investigating the phone-hacking scandal in July 2011, just days before she resigned as CEO of the Murdochs' News International.

Also in the cells—if that's where she ends up after her glittering 20-year career at News—will be her husband Charlie Brooks, her chauffeur Paul Edwards, her PA Cheryl Carter, and her security guard Daryl Josling, as well as the ex-head of security at News International, so she won't be short of company.

How her old paper, The Sun, would have loved the story, had it not been one of theirs who may be heading for the slammer. How could they have resisted reprising the famous headline that greeted the sinking of the General Belgrano all those years ago?

Yes, it was Gotcha all right.

But, surprise, surprise, The Sun hardly even bothered with the news, which managed to rate one brief mention down the bottom of its website, beneath some 50 other stories and pictures that its editor clearly thought more important.

Up in the Twittersphere there was far more excitement, with lots of "finally" and "at last", and several quips about The Sun's campaigns to toughen up jail time for criminals.

There is now much speculation about how much time Brooks might serve if a jury finds her guilty. The maximum penalty is life imprisonment, the average 12 months, but the celebrated author Jeffrey Archer copped a four-year sentence in 2001 for concealing a diary during his libel action in which he won 500,000 pounds damages. However, this did include some time for perjury, of which Archer was also found guilty."




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