THE DECISION of the Metropolitan Police to arrest former chief executive of News International Rebekah Brooks in connection with allegations of phone-hacking and payments to police by the News of the Worldhas thrown into question her appearance before a House of Commons inquiry tomorrow.
Ms Brooks, who quit her post with the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News International subsidiary on Friday, went to a London police station for a prearranged appointment with detectives.
She is understood to have been surprised by her arrest, which took place moments after her arrival.
She, along with Mr Murdoch and his son, James, are scheduled to give evidence tomorrow to the Commons’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee.
Some of the MPs involved are understood to be irked by the police decision to arrest her before she had appeared before one of the most hotly anticipated Commons inquiries for years.
Last night, a spokesman for Ms Brooks said the Metropolitan Police had told her “as late as last week” that they did not need to speak to her. “However, following her resignation and the announcement that she would attend the Select Committee meeting on Tuesday, the police changed their course of action and told Rebekah they did want to speak to her.
“Rebekah was informed about a pre-arranged interview with the police on Friday. She was arrested upon arrival at the police station today.
“The arrest puts her in a difficult position in terms of her scheduled appearance at the meeting on Tuesday. Rebekah’s lawyers will be seeking guidance as to the course of action in regards to attending the meeting on Tuesday,” the spokesman went on.
Announcing the 10th arrest in the investigation so far, the police said Ms Brooks had been arrested “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section1 (1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and on suspicion of corruption allegations, contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906”.
Ms Brooks was in charge of the News of the Worldin 2002 when a private investigator is alleged to have hacked into the voicemail of missing teenager, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered. This led Mr Murdoch snr to apologise to Ms Dowler's family in person on Friday.
Ms Brooks has always said she did not know anything about hacking at the paper at the time.
The Culture, Media and Sport committee will find itself seriously constrained at tomorrow’s hearings, which will be broadcast live by a number of TV news channels, with its chairman, Conservative MP Mr John Whittingdale, warning colleagues they must avoid giving any impression of acting as a “lynch mob”.
The arrest of Ms Brooks now leaves James Murdoch more exposed since he personally signed off on a £700,000 payment in 2007 to one of the tabloid’s hacking victims, former Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor. Mr Taylor had been required at the time to sign a confidentiality agreement.
The UK Serious Fraud Office has now been urged by Labour MP Tom Watson to open an investigation into this payment and those made to London publicist Max Clifford and other prominent public and entertainment figures, on the grounds Mr Murdoch breached his fiduciary duty as a company director.
"It was predicated on the court papers relating to the case being sealed. This prevented evidence of widespread phone hacking becoming public. I can only draw the conclusion that this was done to buy the silence of a victim of crime," declared the Labour MP, one of those who has campaigned for a number of years against the News of the World.
