Cleared Rebekah Brooks releases first statement: 'I feel vindicated'

In her first public comment since the acquittal, Brooks said that she feels 'vindicated'.

15:22 27 June 2014

Rebekah Brooks has released her first statement after she was cleared from all the charges in the phone-hacking scandal. 

 

The former editor of the News of the World said that she felt “vindicated" after she and her racehorse trainer husband Charlie were both found not guilty at the Old Baily on Tuesday. 

 

However, Andy Coulson, another ex-editor of the now-defunct newspaper, was convicted of conspiring to hack phones. 

 

Describing the last three years as “tough”, she told reporters in London, "I feel vindicated by the unanimous verdicts. When I was arrested, it was in the middle of a maelstrom of controversy, of politics and of comment.

 

"Some of that was fair but much of it was not so I am very grateful to the jury for coming to their decision. It has been a time of reflection for me. I have learned some valuable lessons."

 

Meanwhile, her husband said: "Rebekah has been through an unprecedented investigation of an incredibly forensic and personal nature - the likes of which we have possibly never seen."

 

Retired managing editor of the paper, Stuart Kuttner, was also acquitted of being part of the hacking conspiracy dating back to the start of the millenium.