Rebekah Brooks released on bail until October 2011. On 13 March 2012, Brooks was rearrested, together with her husband, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Ninety people have been arrested in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information since police renewed investigations in 2011, many of them employees or agents of newspapers for which Brooks had responsibilities. Sixteen have been formally charged with crimes. On 15 May 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) charged Brooks and five others with conspiring to pervert the course of justice. Charged along with Brooks regarding removal of documents and computers to conceal
News media phone hacking scandal stories was widespread. News media journalists, editors and executives, along with private investigators, public officials, and police officers, all benefited from the practice. Little was done to inhibit it. In 2000, eight-year-old Sarah Payne was murdered by a paedophile. "News of the World" and its then editor, Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), championed the campaign led by Sarah's mother for legislation to notify parents if a child sex offender lived nearby. Brooks gave Sarah's mother a mobile phone to facilitate communication. The phone was subsequently hacked by an agent of "News of the World". Six months later, Sir Paul McCartney left