After yesterdays Roundup today we had people in court. All the main people who had already been charged were now at the point in the process where they must Plead. All were there apart from a couple who had been excused and are apparently in at a later date
There was a rash of Not guilty appeals
Rebekah Brooks pleads not guilty to charges related to phone hacking | UK news | The Guardian
Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief executive, has pleaded not guilty to a series of criminal charges over a nine-year period when she edited the News of the World and the Sun, and latterly ran the newspaper publisher.
She pleaded not guilty to five charges relating to three separate police investigations on Wednesday at Southwark crown court, where she appeared alongside a number of other defendants including her husband, Charlie Brooks, the racehorse trainer and friend of David Cameron.
Brooks pleaded not guilty to one charge relating to an alleged conspiracy to hack phones between October 2000 and August 2006 and not guilty to two further charges relating to an alleged conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office by paying public officials money for stories.
And so at present it still appears that we are due the full Court experience. The date is still scheduled for September, Which means that as yet there are no court delays occuring. The change of Judge hasn't put any crimp in the schedule, which must have improved things for David Cameron, no longer thinking that the case was going to slide towards the next general election and bring unneccessary attention to his closeness to the accused at such a delicate time.
Also today the Crown Prosecution dropped the Prosecution against Victoria Wheeler, the Suns Defence Editor,
Operation Elveden: CPS concludes it is no longer in the public interest to prosecute Virginia Wheeler
"In accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, which requires prosecutors to keep all cases under continual review, following receipt of further expert medical evidence relating to her health the CPS has concluded that it is no longer in the public interest to prosecute Virginia Wheeler.
"Proceedings against Ms Wheeler were commenced on 22 January 2013 by way of summons for an alleged offence of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
"The proceedings against Ms Wheeler have now been concluded."
this has enabled reporting of the conviction and sentencing of another police officer
Met police officer jailed for selling celebrity tipoffs to the Sun | UK news | The Guardian
A former Metropolitan police officer who sold information to the Sun about the Duchess of Cambridge, former footballer Paul Gascoigne, Tetra Pak heir Hans Rausing and a 15-year-old girl who died after taking drugs was jailed for two years in March, it was revealed on Wednesday.
The court heard that Paul Flattley had been on the force barely a year when he started the "sustained" provision of confidential information to the News International newspaper, which earned him a total of £7,600.
The officer, who was on the Met's rapid response team in Kensington and Chelsea, was imprisoned in March after he pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office but, for legal reasons, his crime could not be reported at the time. Over three years, from 2008, he contacted the paper 39 times, although the court heard that not all communication resulted in published articles.
So the wheels of justice carry on grinding, but fortunately appear to have avoided the most fragile and damaged.
More to occur tomorrow.