Rebekah Brooks’s former head of security, who stood trial with her at the Old Bailey last year, has been made redundant and is living on benefits even though he was cleared of plotting with her and her husband to pervert the course of justice.
Mark Hanna has been made redundant by News International with a payoff of less than £30,000. He says that despite more than 250 job applications, he cannot get work because of the “stigma” of being involved in the phone-hacking trial.
His financial ruin is in marked contrast to that of Brooks, who successfully negotiated a £16.1m payout when she resigned as chief executive following her arrest. After being cleared, she returned to the Murdoch fold with speculation that she is to be offered a senior position in London.
Hanna, a former soldier, who was once part of the military attachment accompanying the Queen on a trip to Jordan and who had worked for blue chip firms including Japanese bank Nomura International, is now suing the company for unfair dismissal.
He was suspended on full pay during the eight-month trial but fully expected to return to his post as director of security when it ended.
“I feel betrayed,” he said following an appearance at an employment tribunal in Croydon, adding that what has happened is “wrong, immoral and unjust”.
“I have always worked, right from the age of 16. I remember the prosecutor Anthony Edis saying to me ‘you were a man of impeccable character before you joined News International,’ and I replied. ‘I’d like to think I still am.’ I know I still am.”
Hanna was accused of conspiring to pervert the course of justice along with Brooks and her husband Charlie in 2013. It was alleged that he plotted with the couple and four other defendants to hinder the police investigation into hacking after Charlie Brooks was caught hiding a computer and other material including a Jiffy bag of porn DVDs behind a bin in the underground car park at the Chelsea home he shared with Rebekah Brooks.
During the trial his barrister described Hanna as “a hired hand” who had become entangled in “a huge sensational case, which in truth has nothing to do with him”.
Hanna said the company advised him to take time off when the trial ended, but he fully expected to return to work last autumn.
He said the company kept “fobbing me off” and suggesting he took more leave. He was shocked when it later told him it was going to make him redundant.
“I had been off work because of the trial for two or three years and I made my mind up that what I wanted to do was go back to work but they kept telling me take more time off.
“Then they asked me to come into a meeting. I knew something was up because it appeared to be more formal,” he said. “They told me I was at risk of redundancy, I couldn’t believe it as I had always been assured that my job was safe.”
His case is scheduled to be heard before an employment tribunal in Croydon on 30 November.
“I’ve applied for jobs as a park ranger, driver, all sorts of jobs but nobody wants to touch me.
“I’ve applied to the police to work in their emergency call centres but got an email back to say ‘we’re not taking this any further’,” he said.
“You have to put that you worked with News International on your CV and all it takes is a Google search to see my name come up in connection with the trial.
“Even though I did nothing wrong, I’ve paid an enormous price. I’ve been told by leading industry figures that the risk to reputational damage is too great, that my standing in the security business is irreparable.”
Hanna joined News International as director of security in 2009 and ran the team that staffed the premises, organised surveillance sweeps of corporate offices and supplied protection for executives and journalists on foreign assignments.
During the trial Charlie Brooks, who was also acquitted, had said he felt “ashamed” and “mortified” by the trauma he had caused his wife and Hanna. In court, he described Hanna “as a good and innocent man”.
News UK, formerly News International, is defending his claim.
A spokesperson for News UK said: “Due to ongoing legal matters, we are unable to comment at this time.”
