Beyond Contempt: The Inside Story of the Phone Hacking Trial

'TOP REPORTING' (Nick Davies, The Guardian)

'A MUST READ' (Owen Jones, Chavs)

INTRIGUE AT TRIAL OF THE CENTURY

You know all about the phone hacking trial, don't you? Rebekah Brooks was acquitted and Andy Coulson went to jail. But why?

• Why was Brooks, the public face of the phone hacking scandal, found not guilty on all charges?

• Why did Coulson's expensive defence frustrate reporters?

• What impact did Rupert Murdoch's millons have on the trial?

• And why did the jurors reach the decisions they did?

Blow by blow: Crown v Rebekah Brooks & Others

Peter Jukes, an award-winning TV crime writer, starts at the beginning: October 2013 and the Old Bailey is gearing up for an eight-month courtroom clash.

It's a showdown that will pit tabloid newspaper executives in Rupert Murdoch's News International against the British state.

The journalists are accused of phone hacking, corrupting public officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. After years of cover up involving News International, the Metropolitan Police and the Government, the judge tells the jury: "British justice is on trial".

Insight into British journalism and politics

After tweeting the first few days of the case, Jukes runs out of money - and accidentally becomes the UK's first crowd-funded journalist.

New media exposes the old as the trial lays bare the venality and surveillance of the News of the World: its ability to pry into the lives of anyone who matters, at any moment. A Hollywood actress. A missing girl. A Cabinet minister.

It's also a battle.

Battle of wits between London's top lawyers

With Rupert Murdoch's millions, seven defendants hire London's top QCs. Rebekah Brooks has the £5,000-a-day silk for corporations, Jonathan Laidlaw.

For the Crown is the softly-spoken Liverpudlian Andrew Edis QC.

Several times the multi-million pound cases totters on the brink of collapse.

Drawing on verbatim court exchanges and exhibits, Jukes reveals the daily reality and grand strategies of a major criminal trial.

He gives the secret of Rebekah Brooks' 14 days in the witness box.

He explains why during a cigarette break a defence lawyer gave him a wry smile.

And he discloses the failings of the Crown Prosecution Service which contribute to the (to some) shocking verdicts.

Reviews

A classic of court reporting, Beyond Contempt is suitable for anyone who's followed the phone hacking scandal or Leveson Inquiry.

Reviewers have praised its impartiality, verve and wit:

Top court reporting
(Nick Davies, The Guardian)

Remarkable. I feel I now know all the key players and why some defendants were found guilty and some not, despite never having spent a minute at the trial
(Professor Stewart Purvis, ex-ITN editor)

Written in a chatty, gossipy style that brings the courtroom drama alive.
(Nigel Pauley, Daily Star journalist)

Absorbing and highly revealing... What's striking is how the mass of cash Rupert Murdoch threw at the defence disrupted, disturbed and thwarted the prosecution
(Dan Waddell, ex-redtop reporter)

This book is that rare beast a ground-breaking volume that's also entertaining and informative
(Paddy French, Press Gang)

Where Jukes begins to become a real hero to me and, no doubt, to many others who like the mental challenge of intelligent tweeting, is the point when he decides that he is going to tweet his reports on the trials in the exact moments when the case is actually proceeding in the Old Bailey.
(Rodney E Lever, Independent Australia)