Hacking trial: Dawn raid on Rebekah Brooks’ baby’s cot ‘necessary’

A senior police officer in the hacking inquiry has defended a dawn raid on Rebekah Brooks’s home in search of “hidden” evidence.

Police arrived at the Oxfordshire barn conversion at 4.30am on 13 March 2012 and searched the Moses basket of Brooks’s baby, the Old Bailey heard.

Defending Ms Brooks, Jonathan Laidlaw QC questioned the timing because of the presence of the ex-News International chief executive’s baby and her husband’s mother. Detective Inspector Steve McCabe said it had been necessary to carry out the search “without fear or favour”.

Rebekah Brooks, 45, and Charles Brooks, 50, both of Churchill, Oxfordshire; Cheryl Carter, 49, of Chelmsford; and Mark Hanna, 50, of Buckingham, deny the charges against them.

PA