Two former senior Murdoch editors charged over UK phone-hacking

[July 30, 2014]  LONDON (Reuters) - Two more senior journalists from Rupert Murdoch's defunct British tabloid the News of the World have been charged with phone-hacking, prosecutors said on Wednesday, weeks after the paper's ex-editor was jailed for the crime.

Neil Wallis, the paper's ex-deputy editor, and former features editor Jules Stenson, have been charged with conspiracy to intercept voicemails on mobile phones of well-known figures or people close to them, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

The charges come after Andy Coulson, who edited the paper from 2003 until 2007 before later working as Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief, was jailed for 18 months for encouraging staff to hack phones in a bid to get exclusive stories. [ID:nL6N0PF1XM]

His trial, one of the most expensive of its kind in British legal history, heard that thousands of victims from celebrities to politicians and victims of crime were targeted by the paper.

Outrage at the paper's activities led Murdoch to closing the paper in 2011 when revelations of the scale of the crimes came to light, and Cameron has since apologized for employing Coulson.

Four other former journalists and a private detective who worked for the paper have also admitted phone-hacking while working for the News of the World.

A week ago, the CPS decided not to take action against six other staff. Prosecutors are still considering whether corporate charges should be brought against News Corp.'s British arm.

Wallis and Stenson are due to appear at London's Westminster Magistrates' court on Aug. 21.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Alison Williams)

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