Rebekah Brooks discussed closing down the News of the World in order to protect News Corp's bid for BSkyB at least a month before the revelations that Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked, the Old Bailey has heard.
An email sent from the then head of corporate affairs Simon Greenberg to her on 9 June 2011, shows he considered the mounting revelations about phone hacking and arrests were impacting on "Rubicon", the codename for the BSkyB bid.
He asked: "Is the brand too toxic for the company, important for Rubicon". He added that "unparalleled moments deserve unparalleled actions."
Giving evidence for the seventh day at the hacking trial, Brooks confirmed that "one of the options, the shutting down of the NoW was a topic of discussion." She told the court. "I think Will Lewis [general manager of NI], Simon Greenberg and I had discussed it as a possibility" as "the civil liability was growing".
The NoW was shut on 10 July, days after the Guardian's revelations that schoolgirl Dowler's phone had been hacked led to a national outcry over allegations of unlawful proceedings.
Brooks was also told by executives at News International, while on holiday in Barbados in April 2011, that she could be arrested on her return. At this point two News of the World journalists had been arrested – Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup, both of whom have pleaded guilty to hacking-related charges.
She took personal legal advice from law firm Hickman and Rose and later flew to Washington for further legal advice on the company's strategy in the face of the intensifying crisis. She was told that if she was arrested she should expect her home to be searched.
The court heard of the "police anger" after News International had not allowed police to search Weatherup's desk. They had allowed detectives into the paper when Thurlbeck had been arrested but this time decided to move Weatherup's belongings into a solicitor's office and allow the police to perform their search there.
"I was told the police were incredibly angry at NI's actions, so angry they were going to consider their options," which included taking action against Ian Burton, a partner at law firm Burton & Copeland that had given NI instructions.
Brooks said she was "very upset" to learn before she went to Barbados on holiday that deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, head of the Metropolitan police's Operation Weeting, had requested that she be removed from a so-called "confidentiality club", an internal News International unit that shared information on hacking.
"Before I'd gone on holiday the deputy assistant commissioner in charge of Operation Weeting had said to Will Lewis and, I think, the lawyer, Ian Burton, that she felt that I [should] be removed from the confidentiality club. I remember this because I was very upset about it. I couldn't understand why she asked me to be removed."
She went on: "I can't remember whether it was Will Lewis or the lawyer who told me, but someone said it was me and Colin Myler being removed. I was very surprised because I couldn't see why."
Brooks said was not aware there was any evidence that hacking had taken place at the News of the World during her editorship between 2000 and 2003 until March 2011.
She denies being involved in a conspiracy to hack phones and three other charges.
The trial continues.
