Pitt Jolie Hacking Victims

Pitt Jolie Hacking Victims - The Hollywood actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been named as victims of phone hacking allegedly carried out by journalists at the News of the World.

Prosecutors in London alleged that two members of staff at the now-defunct Murdoch newspaper conspired to intercept the voicemail messages of Eunice Huthart, an associate of Pitt and Jolie, and other unnamed people connected to the actors.

Huthart is a former stunt double for Jolie and participant in the Gladiators game show.

The actors' names emerged as prosecutors announced charges against eight people, including Andy Coulson, the former director of communications for the British prime minister, David Cameron, and Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International.

Seven of those charged are named in an alleged conspiracy that is said to have involved 600 victims – including a number of celebrities and politicians – over six years between 2000 and 2006.

Coulson and Brooks are charged in connection with the hacking of the phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The announcement by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in London means some of Rupert Murdoch's former top aides have been charged with criminal offences. Also charged were Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former news editor, Greg Miskiw, another former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

Alison Levitt QC, principal legal adviser to the director of public prosecutions, said 19 charges would be brought. Thurlbeck and Weatherup are alleged to have conspired to intercept the voicemail messages of "persons associated with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who included Eunice Huthart", the CPS said.

Thurlbeck, a former chief reporter at the News of the World, said he would fight the charges laid against him. He said he was "most surprised and disappointed" at the the announcement. "I will vigorously fight to clear my reputation," he said.

Brooks said: "I am not guilty of these charges. I did not authorise, nor was I aware of, phone hacking under my editorship. I am distressed and angry that the CPS have reached this decision when they knew all the facts and were in a position to stop the case at this stage. The charge concerning Milly Dowler is particularly upsetting, not only as it is untrue but also because I have spent my journalistic career campaigning for victims of crime. I will vigorously defend these allegations."

The announcement follows a Scotland Yard investigation that began in 2011,, after police had repeatedly said there was no need to reopen the investigation.

In July 2009, the Guardian began running a series of articles that claimed phone hacking was more widespread than previously admitted.

On Monday, police said they believed there were 4,775 potential victims of phone hacking, of whom 2,615 had been notified. The Metropolitan police deputy assistant commissioner, Sue Akers, told the Leveson inquiry that her force had notified more than 702 people who were "likely" to have been victims.

The CPS has received files from the Met's Operation Weeting team covering 13 individuals, including 11 journalists from the News of the World and Mulcaire.