Rebekah Brooks could return as boss of News Corp UK

By amandacameron 

Rebekah Brooks could return as the chief executive of News Corp UK, four years after she stood down during the phone-hacking scandal.

News Corp has said it is in talks with Mrs Brooks, who quit as chief executive of the news empire's UK division in 2011.

The former editor of News of the World was later cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to the phone-hacking scandal.

Dr Evan Harris, joint executive director of campaign group Hacked Off, said: "Yes she's entitled to her verdict of not guilty - but she achieved that with a defence of incompetence; she didn't know what was happening, and yet she's coming back. It's astonishing."

But Roger Alton, ex-executive editor of the Times, said: "The phone-hacking scandal is in the past... She is an extremely effective, talented person, most likeable, extremely good with people."

The News of the World closed in 2011 during the height of the phone-hacking scandal.

Journalists at the tabloid were found to have accessed private messages of royals, celebrities and victims of crime, among others. /bathchronicle.co.uk