January 7, 2014

Rebekah’s missing boxes taken home by PA’s son, court told

The son of Rebekah Brooks’ former PA Nick Carter said he regularly took things home on his mother Cheryl’s behalf, a court has heard.

Nick Carter told the Old Bailey that his mother called him to pick her up at the office on 8 July 2011.

The court heard that the 24 year-old was working as an administrative assistant at News International at the time.

He said he went with his mother and a driver to Enfield where they picked up seven boxes from NI archivist Nick Mays.

The boxes were loaded into the back of a car. Carter said he then took the boxes to the home he shared with his parents and left them on the landing.

Although he had never been asked to remove boxes from the archive office before, he said he had no idea what was in them or what happened to them after he took them home. And he never asked his mother about them.

Quizzed by his mother's defence lawyer Trevor Burke, QC, Carter said he was "very close" to his mother and had worked for NI since getting a part-time job at the age of 15.

He said his mother regularly received parcels of cosmetics during her time working as a beauty columnist for The Sun and after she moved to the corporate floor, all the PAs there would regularly call on him to do admin jobs for them because they were too busy.

Burke asked: "So taking items from work home to your mum's house was something you did at least once a week for years and years?"

The witness replied: "It was a regular occurrence, yes."

Carter said the next he heard of the boxes was when police asked him for a statement on 24 November, 2011. His parents were en route home from Australia where they were considering emigrating, he said.

Asked if he had any reservations about possibly getting his mother into trouble by telling the police he had removed the boxes at her request, he replied: "No, none at all. It was a regular occurrence."

Burke then went on to ask Carter about the suggestion that his mother had been offered the opportunity to emigrate to Australia as a "reward" for removing the boxes.

Carter said the whole family had begun considering a move in the early 2000s and had been granted a visa in February 2007, years before the boxes were removed.

Before deciding to move there, his parents made one final trip when his mother had an interview with the Perth Times.

But in January 2012, the family were forced to leave her behind because she had been arrested, hoping she would be able to join them later. Their plans changed after she was charged and she became unwell, the court heard.

Former News of the Worldand Sun editor Rebekah Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, and Cheryl Carter, 49, of Chelmsford, Essex, deny a charge of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, by removing potential evidence which could have been inspected by police.

Brooks and all the other defendants in the case deny all charges against them.

The trial continues.