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divdiv class=story-body readability=124 span class=story-date#13; span class=date31 October 2013/span#13;span class=time-textLast updated at /spanspan class=time15:37 ET/span#13; #13;/span#13;#13; #13;#13;#13; #13; #13; #13; #13; p class=introduction id=story_continues_1Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson were having an affair for at least six years from the late 1990s, the phone-hacking trial has heard./p#13; pProsecutor Andrew Edis QC said he was disclosing the affair because it showed how much the pair trusted each other./p#13; pWhat Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew too. What Mrs Brooks knew, Mr Coulson knew too, he said. That's the point./p#13; pMrs Brooks and Mr Coulson deny charges, including conspiracy to phone hack./p#13; pJurors heard their affair, which began around 1998, was discovered by police through a letter saved on a computer belonging to Mrs Brooks./p#13; span class=cross-head'I love you'/span#13; pThe letter was written by Mrs Brooks in February 2004, when Mr Coulson was trying to end the affair, Mr Edis said. /p#13; p id=story_continues_2She wrote: The fact is you are my very best friend, I tell you everything, I confide in you, I seek your advice, I love you, care about you, worry about you, we laugh and cry together./p#13; pIn fact without our relationship in my life, I am not sure I will cope./p#13; pIt is not clear whether Mr Coulson ever received the letter, which was found on a Word document on a computer hidden in a cupboard./p#13; pMr Edis told jurors he was not revealing the affair to deliberately intrude into the pair's privacy or to make a moral judgment./p#13; pBut Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson are charged with conspiracy and, when people are charged with conspiracy, the first question a jury has to answer is how well did they know each other? How much did they trust each other?, he said./p#13; pAnd the fact that they were in this relationship, which was a secret, means that they trusted each other quite a lot with at least that secret, and that's why we are telling you about it./p#13; span class=cross-headBlunkett story/span#13; pIn other evidence, the court heard that Mr Coulson confronted former Home Secretary David Blunkett over his three-year relationship with Kimberly Quinn, a married woman./p#13; pMr Coulson, then editor of the News of the World, told Mr Blunkett, who was not married at the time, that the story had come from extremely reliable sources, which was in fact phone hacking, Mr Edis said./p#13; p id=story_continues_3In a recording played in court of a meeting in August 2004 between the two men, Mr Coulson told Mr Blunkett: My job is to sort out the nonsense from the accurate. /p#13; pI believe if I don't do this story at least one of my sources will take this information to another newspaper. People talk./p#13; pThe court heard a story about the affair was published later that same month./p#13; pRecordings of voicemails left on the married woman's phone included a message about a pregnancy scan, the court heard./p#13; pMr Edis told jurors: We say it is absolutely inconceivable that a newspaper would publish a story of that kind about a serving cabinet minister without knowing it was true./p#13; pMr Coulson did know it was true... because of the voicemails which had been obtained as a result of tasking Glenn Mulcaire, [a private investigator] who by August 2004 had been working regularly for the News of the World for four years./p#13; pThe court also heard that the News of the World's then managing editor, Stuart Kuttner, had told police the paper had a tape of a voicemail left on the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who went missing in Surrey in 2002./p#13; pSurrey Police took no action at the time, jurors heard./p#13; pMr Edis said: It is common ground that Surrey Police could and should have investigated. Perhaps at that time they may have thought that it was really more important to find Milly Dowler./p#13; pThe court also heard that in the same week that the paper tried to get an interview with Mr and Mrs Dowler, Mulcaire was being asked to hack their daughter's phone./p#13; #13; pMr Edis said the paper's editors had extensive contact with each other and the police over the case, and Mrs Brooks was even making calls about Milly Dowler while on holiday in Dubai./p#13; pThis, he said, proved she must have known what was going on./p#13; pThe discovery that the schoolgirl's phone had been hacked by someone at the News of the World ultimately led to the closure of the Sunday tabloid in 2011./p#13; span class=cross-head'McCartney row'/span#13; pThe jury was told Mrs Brooks did know about the practice of phone hacking./p#13; pMr Edis said she told golfer Colin Montgomerie's then wife, Eimear, in 2005, that all you needed to listen in to people's voicemails was a mobile number and a factory pin./p#13; pMrs Brooks gave her an example of an exclusive story that she said had come from hacking, about Sir Paul McCartney arguing with his then wife Heather over an engagement ring, jurors heard./p#13; pMrs Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire, and Mr Coulson, also 45, from Charing in Kent - among eight people on trial - are both accused of conspiring with others to hack phones and two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office. /p#13; pMrs Brooks also faces two allegations of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. They deny all charges./p#13; pMrs Brooks married her first husband, actor Ross Kemp, in 2002, after a six-year engagement. /p#13; pShe married her second, the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, in 2009. They have a young daughter. /p#13; pMrs Brooks took the helm at the News of the World in 2000, becoming the youngest editor of a British national newspaper, and went on to edit the Sun three years later. In 2009, she became chief executive of News International./p#13; span class=cross-head'Quick worker'/span#13; pMr Coulson married his wife Eloise in 2000. They have two children. /p#13; pHe was Mrs Brooks' deputy for three years during her editorship at the News of the World, then took over as her successor in 2003. /p#13; pHe quit in January 2007 and went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's communications director until 2011./p#13; pMr Kuttner, 73, of Woodford Green, Essex, also denies conspiring with others to hack phones between 3 October, 2000 and 9 August, 2006./p#13; pOn Wednesday, the court was told Mulcaire, and three former News of the World journalists who are not on trial, had pleaded guilty to phone-hacking charges./p#13; pEarlier on Thursday, the court heard Mulcaire was given a written contract in 2001 and received 221 payments between 2000 and 2007, totalling £413,527, that were authorised by Mr Kuttner./p#13; pMr Edis also told jurors how emails sent by Mulcaire about hacking phones belonging to MP Tessa Jowell and her husband, David Mills, Lord Frederick Windsor and an adviser to John Prescott led the police to launch their investigation in 2011./p#13; pMulcaire was, said Mr Edis, a quick worker who knew how to get mobile phone operators to reset voicemail passwords - a method allegedly used to access people's voicemails./p#13; pThe trial continues./p#13; /div/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center