Police Seize Bag Found Near Rebekah Brooks' Home

Husband claims that the bag belongs to him

Detectives are investigating a computer, phone, and paperwork found in a bag near the home of recently-arrested former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, the Guardian reports.

The bag was found in the trash in an underground parking lot beneath a shopping center, just yards from the apartment block where Brooks lives with her husband Charlie. It was then given to security, and when Charlie Brooks attempted to retrieve it, he was unable to prove it was his, so a security guard refused to release it and and called the police, who are now studying security tape to find out who dropped the bag in the first place.

Brooks is denying that the bag belongs to his wife, saying that he left the bag with a friend who was returning it, but dropped it in the wrong part of the garage. When asked how it ended up in the trash, Brooks’ spokesman David Wilson explained, “The suggestion is that a cleaner thought it was rubbish and put it in the bin.”

“Charlie's lawyers got in touch with the police to say they could take a look at the computer but they'd see there was nothing relevant to them on it,” Wilson said. “He's expecting the stuff back forthwith.”

According to Wilson, the contents of the bag included “a laptop and papers which were private to him,” adding that they “were nothing to do with Rebekah or the [phone-hacking] case.”