Phone Hacking: Former News International Security Guard Faces Charges

LONDON -- A former News International security guard has been charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in connection with the police investigation into alleged phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. publishing division.

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The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Wednesday that Lee Sandell will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on Sept. 13.

There he will face charges of conspiring with the former NI chief executive Rebekah Brooks and four others to conceal documents, computers and other devices from police.

Sandell is the sixth person to be charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to Scotland Yard's investigation into phone hacking.

Brooks and her husband Charlie were charged in May, alongside News International's former security chief Mark Hanna, Brooks's chauffer Paul Edwards and her News International security guard Daryl Josling.

Alison Levitt, principal legal advisor to the director of public prosecutions, said: "The CPS received a file of evidence in relation to Lee Sandell from the Metropolitan police service on 9 August 2012."

The evidence film came from Operation Sacha, the investigation into allegations of perverting the course of justice.

"We have concluded, having carefully considered the file of evidence, that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to charge Mr Sandell with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice," Levitt said.

It is alleged Sandell conspired with Brooks, Hanna, Edwards, Josling and persons unknown between July 15 and 19 2011 to "conceal documents, computers and other electronic devices" from Metropolitan police officers investigating allegations of phone hacking and inappropriate payments to police officers.