Prosecutors in Britain announced today that eight people, including former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, will face criminal charges for their role in the News International phone hacking case. 

The group will face a total of 19 charges of conspiring to intercept communications for accessing the voice mails of various individuals whom they were reporting on. Most are facing charges for the most notorious of those cases — that of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and murdered. News of the World reporters accessed her phone messages while she was still believed to be missing, interfering with the police investigation and eventually leading to the inquiry that resulted in today's charges. 

Coulson left the paper in 2007 and later joined the staff of Prime Minister David Cameron, but resigned last year due to the growing scandal. The other individuals to be charged are journalists Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck, James Weatherup and Ian Edmondson, as well as private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

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Dashiell Bennett