Ex-Murdoch newspaper chief bailed over phone hacking inquiry

The former chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks and her husband were arrested at their home in Oxfordshire this early morning as part of Operation Weeting.

Ms Brooks together with racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks and four other men were held on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Rebekah Brooks, who was forced to resign from News International in the wake of the phone hacking scandal and illegal payment to police officers in July 2011, was already due to answer bail later this month.

She was being quizzed in Oxfordshire while Mr Brooks was being interrogated at a Buckinghamshire police station.

They will also be questioned about two computers found dumped in a private car park under the Brooks’s apartment last summer.

Moreover, revelations that Scotland Yard lent Rebekah Brooks a police horse for two years raises questions over the Met’s links with the Murdoch media empire.

Today’s arrest could be embarrassing for Prime Minister David Cameron, who went to school with Mr Brooks and is a close friend of the couple.

Meanwhile officers from the Operation Weeting phone hacking enquiry are searching addresses connected to the people who have been arrested today.

The Weeting investigation was launched in January 2011 after new material was passed to police by News International and a total of 22 people have been arrested under the Operation so far.