A judge ordered the jury in the British phone-hacking trial to find Rebekah Brooks “not guilty” on one charge, before the former Sun editor opened her defense in the case, the Guardian reported.
The judge said there was “no case to answer” in relation to count 4, one of the five counts against Brooks, the former executive for Rupert Murdoch’s News International and an editor at two of his papers. One of them, the News of the World, shut down during the phone-hacking scandal.
Also read: Rebekah Brooks Was Hacked by Her Own Tabloid
The count related to a charge alleging that Brooks unlawfully authorized payment to a public official for a photograph of Prince William in fancy dress.
Brooks has pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges. One involves payments to public officials when she was editor of the Sun. She is also accused of conspiring to hack phones, and two charges alleging she obstructed the police investigation of the hacking.