The mother of murdered Sarah Payne gave evidence in the hacking trial today and said the News of the World had been a "force for good".
Sara Payne told how former editor Rebekah Brooks and retired managing director Stuart Kuttner had lent their personal support during the search for her daughter and the long-running campaign for Sarah's Law that followed.
With the aid of a walking stick, Mrs Payne stepped up with difficulty into the witness box as Brooks and Kuttner smiled at her in the dock.
She told jurors: "It's easy to forget in these dark times the NotW has often been a force for good and it has something to do with the people who worked on it."
She added: "I do not pretend they are perfect or always got things right."
But she told jurors that Kuttner was a "gentleman" and Brooks was "really sweet".
On Brooks, she said: "She was really sweet natured. She had a certain directness about her. She would like to speak directly about things."
She told how they worked "as a team" on Sarah's Law, sharing their research.
Brooks was "always in the foreground" of the campaign, day and night.
She said: "I did not sleep. I could call at two o'clock in the morning and she would pick up the phone."
Payne, who was called by Kuttner's legal team as a character witness, said: "Stuart is a gentleman. He is everything my parents taught me about being a gentleman and having manners. He is a good guy. He has always been there to listen."
She said he helped steer her through the newspaper industry and meeting politicians as part of the campaign.
The NotW team always ensured that her other children were looked after during the campaign, she said.
Payne, who wrote a article for the last NotW edition, described being in the newsroom during the last week in 2011.
"I spent some time in the newsroom and they were very, very down about stories going on in the media around the world. I felt they were almost mourning something."
She had a big picture of Sarah Payne brought in to remind them of "what they had achieved".
Brooks, 45 and Kuttner, 74 and all their co-defendants deny the charges against them.
As he concluded his cross-examination, Edis said: "Of all the senior management at the NotW, you were the one who had the most direct dealings with paying Glenn Mulcaire, were you not?"
Kuttner said: "In the sense that he is among many thousands of others, his payments came to my offices, yes."
Edis said: "For years?"
Kuttner said: "Yes, I think that's right."
Edis went on: "And I'm going to suggest the way he was treated in accounts split into weekly payments was a device by you to hide him."
Kuttner replied: "I refute that."
Edis said: "You could find out the truth at any moment just by looking at the books."
Kuttner asked what truth, and Mr Edis said: "That he was being paid £100,000 as far as anyone could see for doing nothing at all.
"You knew what he was being paid and you also knew there was not a single document in existence to show what he did for the money."
Kuttner said: "No, I did not know that."
Edis went on: "The reason for that is his activity was criminal phone-hacking and you knew that."
Kuttner replied: "As I have already said, I have spent a lifetime in newspapers. You have heard from three character witnesses. I have said, perhaps for the last time, that such conduct, such behaviour, such activity, is as remote from my concept of newspapers as it is possible to be."
The trial was adjourned until Monday.
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