Police have defended their dawn raid on Rebekah Brooks's Oxfordshire home at the phone-hacking trial, saying they conduct all searches without "fear of favour".
DI Steve McCabe, an investigating officer with the Metropolitan police's Operation Weeting who set the strategy for the search, told the jury they had opted for the 5am call at the house because they were searching other premises across three counties that day and one of the suspects had the "habit of leaving very early". This person was later identified as Mark Hanna, head of News International's security.
McCabe told the Old Bailey on Wednesday that the dawn raid was necessary to ensure suspects did not communicate with each other and to ensure material was not hidden or destroyed.
On Tuesday the jury heard that 11 police had "banged on the door" of the Brooks's home at 5am in March 2012 and that the former chief executive of News International had expressed concern about the impact of the surprise visit on her six-week-old daughter, who had been born prematurely.
Brooks's husband Charlie shook his head and laughed aloud when McCabe said he would not have described the search as "banging down doors".
Counsel for Rebekah Brooks, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, asked McCabe whether he knew there was a small baby in the house ahead of the search and whether he knew the child's Moses basket had been searched.
He said he was aware of this and agreed it was a delicate matter but it was justified in the circumstances.
"As a father myself, who had a young child, I am acutely aware that police at the door is not a pleasant experience," McCabe said.
Asked if he knew the child's basket had been searched he said: "Yes".
After a pause, he added: "I'd like to qualify that. We've conducted searches with no fear or favour on whose premises we search. It's a very delicate matter to search a child's Moses basket. I'm sure the officers had good reason to."
He said the police also take the occupation of the suspect into account when deciding on their search strategy and he was aware that the Cheltenham horse-racing festival was beginning that week. The jury has already been told that Brooks's husband Charlie is a racehorse trainer.
"My limited knowledge of what they do, they also lead very very early lives," said McCabe.
Counsel for Charlie Brooks, Neil Saunders, asked McCabe if he was aware that the suspect had no horses running in Cheltenham that week. He said he was not. Saunders also asked if McCabe was aware that Brooks was a journalist. McCabe replied: "Absolutely not."
Saunders asked why he had answered "Absolutely not." McCabe replied: "It was news to me that he was, I believed Mr Brooks to be a racehorse trainer."
McCabe was asked if he was aware that Brooks had written a horse-racing column for the Daily Telegraph for 10 years and had also been the paper's "countryside editor". He replied that he was not.
Earlier, DS Alan Pritchard, also on the Operation Weeting team, told the jury that the computers seized from Wapping and Chelsea did not show any history of "relevant" activity and that an iPad, phone and computer registered to Rebekah Brooks had still not been "accounted for".
The trial continues.
