NI security chief admits looking after Charlie Brooks laptops, letters and porn: ‘We look after a lot of things for a lot of people’

Former News International security chief Mark Hanna told the phone-hacking trial at the Old Bailey yesterday that he agreed to "look after" bags of property for Charlie Brooks, but it would have been "a different ball game altogether" if it was for his wife, Rebekah Brooks.

The Old Bailey trial was shown CCTV of Hanna meeting Brooks in the underground car park of the couple's west London apartment on 17 July, 2011.

Hanna said Brooks asked him to look after some bags, including a Jiffy bag retrieved from behind the bins.

Meanwhile, former News International (NI) chief executive Rebekah Brooks was being interviewed by police and officers were about to search the couple's flat, the court has heard.

Prosecutor Andrew Edis QC asked Hanna if he thought it an odd request. Hanna replied: "We look after a lot of things for a lot of people."

He denied the suggestion that he would hide anything from police for Mrs Brooks, saying: "Rebekah had left News International. She was already at the police station. It was a different ball game altogether.

"As far as I was concerned, Rebekah was the primary concern for the police so I would not have got rid of anything for Rebekah."

The court heard that Hanna took the property, which contained an assortment of items including laptops, letters and pornography, to the News International offices and bagged them up outside.

Asked why he did that, Hanna said: "Security and porn do not go well together. The last thing you want the security team to see is porn."

Later that day, Brooks asked for the property to be returned so Hanna dispatched a security guard and asked him to pick up pizza en route, the court heard.

Brooks never mentioned paying for the pizza. The guard handed over the pizza but left the bags behind the bins in the car park.

Hanna denied having instructing him to do that, saying that would be between Brooks and the guard to agree.

Hanna, 50, of Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, denies conspiring with Rebekah and Charlie Brooks to pervert the course of justice.

All seven defendants in the case deny the charges against them.

The trial was adjourned until today.

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