Rebekah Brooks has told the Old Bailey she had never heard of the News of the World phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire when she was editor of the paper between 2000 and 2003.
Brooks told the phone-hacking trial jury on Thursday she had never heard Mulcaire's name, nor was his name ever mentioned in her presence while she was editor.
She said that it was common practice to use private detectives but she had not heard his name associated with this during her stewardship.
Asked by her counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, if she had ever heard of him associated with the practice of phone hacking she responded: "No, not at all."
Last year the jury heard that Mulcaire, a former footballer, was interviewed for a story about AFC Wimbledon in the paper's sports section on August 18 2002.
The article referred to Mulcaire, "the man they called Trigger", describing how he was "part of our special investigations team".
Brooks denied the investigations unit she set up the paper was there to hack phones. "It is not correct," she said when asked by Laidlaw whether hacking was its purpose.
Brooks was asked about Greg Miskiw, the head of the investigations unit, who, the jury has been told, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to hack phones before the trial started.
She described him as "old school" and "insular" but said colleagues would have "said he was professional, hard working and worked long hours". She said: "He was quite insular. He kept himself to himself."
The court heard that Brooks ordered Miskiw back to London from New York when she was made editor. He had only just moved to New York, she said, after being appointed to head up a new US bureau for the paper.
"I don't think he was particularly pleased to have to come back from New York. I think he was there a matter of a week or so, maybe even shorter. It was a particularly good gig to get the New York bureau, but I thought it was a waste of money."
She was also asked about another senior staff member, Stuart Kuttner, the paper's former managing editor and a co-defendant in the hacking trial. He has, like her, pleaded not guilty to a charge that they conspired to hack phones.
Brooks said she was not close to Kuttner though she had "incredible respect" for him. "I would not say we were ever friends. He was of a different generation, a different world."
The former News of the World editor explained that she split the newsdesk from the investigations unit, which Miskiw headed, because after two years at the Sun she did not find the paper's news operation was reactive enough to breaking news.
She felt it expedient to have a special unit to do long-term stories, freeing the newsdesk to get behind the big breaking stories of the week.
Asked by Laidlaw about suggestions the investigations unit she created was involved in "unethical" activities, Brooks said: "It's not true. Mazher Mahmood is one of the people on there to talk about, he's an incredible professional, good journalist who could work on any newspaper."
Brooks said Mahmood was involved in subterfuge "but always with very good public interest" justification. "The investigations unit did great stuff while I was there. I don't recognise that," she said, referring to Laidlaw's question about whether the desk was unethical.
The trial continues.
