Rebekah Brooks's husband hid his lesbian porn collection from police to avoid Jacqui Smith-style public humiliation, the Old Bailey heard today.
Charlie Brooks, 51, admitted he had “incredibly stupidly” hidden a bag full of DVDs and an old laptop behind bins when he knew detectives were coming to search his flat.
He said he feared a “Jacqui Smith moment”, referring to the public embarrassment suffered by the former Home Secretary when her husband submitted a Parliamentary expenses claim for hotel porn movies.
Racehorse trainer Brooks accepted he had stashed seven lesbian porn DVDs in a jiffy bag in the underground car park at their Chelsea Harbour flat before police arrived in July 2011, when his wife was arrested on suspicion of phone hacking.
“I envisaged 20 policemen coming and emptying every drawer and looking under every nook and cranny,” he told the jury. “I did think about my DVDs and I had what I still describe as my Jacqui Smith moment.
“I didn’t want to embarrass my wife in the same way, and my instinctive reaction was police could easily leak this sort of material to the press.”
He said the laptop was an old, broken Sony Vaio, which contained some “smut” from his bachelor days and ideas for novels he was planning.
“Incredibly stupidly and rashly, I thought I would hide this too, so they didn’t take it away and I wouldn’t lose my material,” he added.
Brooks, who was watched from the public gallery by his friend and Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, has pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice. All the defendants deny all the charges. The case continues.
