Last ditch effort of News International staffers to block phone hacking prosecution fails

Chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks, and the former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson have lost a last-ditch legal attempt for dismissal of illegal phone hacking charges against them.

The two, who are also former editors of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, were among five staff of the now-defunct News International title who failed to convince the Court of Appeal that voicemails did not fall under the legal and technical definition concerning ''transmission'' of telecommunications.

Brooks and Coulson, as also former news editor, Ian Edmondson, former chief reporter, James Weatherup,  and former managing editor, Stuart Kuttner, have all pleaded not guilty to charges of  ''conspiring to intercept communications in the course of their transmission without lawful authority.''

Their trial would now start September, following the dismissal of their appeals.

Lawyers representing the five defendants, were led by Clare Montgomery QC. Their appeal turned on legal arguments over when the course of a transmission of a voicemail message ended, and over whether a message was saved by the receiver on a public phone network, it remained ''in the course of transmission.''

They would also be standing trial in the same month for charges of phone hacking to which all five pleaded not guilty this month.

They have denied conspiracy to intercept mobile phone voicemails between October 3 2000 and August 9 2006.

Meanwhile, allowing reporting of the names of the defendants, the judges said today, "We can see no possible prejudice to the fairness of the forthcoming trial. We must not be unrealistic - there can hardly be anyone in the country who does not know to whom this case applies."

The three judges also refused to let the five to take the matter to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. Lord Judge said the defendants would only pay legal costs if they are convicted.

It has been over six years since staff from the newspaper allegedly conspired to hack the voicemail of celebrities as also the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in 2002.

Among 600 alleged victims are celebrities including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Paul McCartney, Wayne Rooney and David Blunkett as well as murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose phone was allegedly hacked between 9 April and 21 April 2002.