Brooks apologises to UK parliament over hacking

LONDON (Reuters) - Rebekah Brooks, who last week resigned as head of News Corp's British newspaper operations, on Tuesday joined her former bosses Rupert and James Murdoch in apologising to the British parliament for a hacking scandal.

Following are highlights of her testimony to the House of Commons committee on Culture, Media and Sport.

APOLOGY

"I would like to add my own personal apologies to the apologies that James and Rupert Murdoch have made today ... Allegations of voice intercepts, internet intercepts of victims of crime is pretty horrific and abhorrent and I wanted to reiterate that."

Asked if she has any regrets: "Of course I have regrets, the idea that Milly Dowler's phone was accessed by someone getting paid by the News of the World, or even worse authorised by someone at the News of the World, is as abhorrent to me as it is to everyone in this room. I also regret the speed in which we have found out, or tried to find out the bottom of this investigation, has been too slow."

PRIVATE DETECTIVES

"The News of the World employed private detectives like most newspapers in Fleet Street."

"I was aware the News of the World used private detectives under my editorship."

Asked if she had any contact, directly or through others, with Glenn Mulcaire: "None whatsoever".

PAYMENTS TO POLICE

"I can say I have never paid a policeman myself. I've never knowingly sanctioned a payment to a police officer."

"You've had various crime editors from Fleet Street discussing in the past (that) payments have been made to police officers. I was referring to that wide-held belief not widespread practice."

"In my experience of dealing with the police, the information they give to newspapers comes free of charge"

CLOSURE OF NEWS OF THE WORLD

Outlining her discussion with journalists: "Right now, you may not be able to in this moment understand why we have done it but in a year's time I think you will come to the realisation that we actually did the right thing. Once you have broken your trust with the readers there's not much going back and unfortunately the News of the World used to lead the headlines for the right reasons but for the last few months, and probably the last few years it has been leading the headlines for the wrong reasons."

"Of course it wasn't the right decision for the hundreds of journalists who have worked on there and had done nothing wrong and were in no way responsible for anything ... We have endeavoured to find a job for every single one of them."

MULCAIRE

"The documentation seized from Glenn Mulcaire's house in 2006 -- we have no visibility on it, you have no visibility on it, only the police have visibility on it. They are conducting their new enquiry and I am sure they will go through the thousands of documents they say are there and I think in a year's time, maybe a little longer, we will actually get to a final position on what exactly happened."

LEGAL FEES

Asked why Andy Coulson's and Glenn Mulcaires' legal fees were paid in a case where they were only cited as witnesses: "When Andy Coulson left the News of the World he had an agreement that all matters relating to this his legal fees were paid, and I think the same for Clive Goodman. On Glenn Mulcaire I think his legal fees would be paid when in fact he was a co-defendant in the civil cases."