Brooks at Center of News Corp. Hacking, Prosecutor Says

Rebekah Brooks, the former head of News Corp.’s U.K. unit, was at the center of phone-hacking and bribery practices that were commonplace at two company newspapers for a decade, prosecutors said on the first day of a criminal trial in London.

Brooks, 45, oversaw hacking as the editor of the weekly News of the World and bribes to public officials when she moved to the daily Sun, prosecutor Andrew Edis told jurors yesterday. Three former News Corp. journalists and a private investigator have pleaded guilty to intercepting voice mails, he said.