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
Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal disclosed that voicemail messages from Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked back in 2002 by an agent of "News of the World" looking for a story. This disclosure inflamed public opinion and led to loss of advertising for "News of the World" and subsequent closure of this 168-year-old newspaper. Within two weeks, senior News Corporation executives resigned, including Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones & Company, Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, Tom Crone, legal manager of News International, and Lawrence Jacobs, general counsel for News Corporation. Also within two weeks, the two top officials of the Metropolitan