[Omah]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20405915

Ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson and ex-News International executive Rebekah Brooks are to be charged in connection with payments to police and public officials.

The Crown Prosecution Service said they were among five people to face action as part of the inquiry.

The others are journalists Clive Goodman and John Kay and Ministry of Defence employee Bettina Jordan Barber.

Operation Elveden is the Met Police investigation into corrupt payments.

The five have been charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in public office.

Mr Goodman is the former royal correspondent of the now-defunct News of the World newspaper.

And Mr Kay is the former Sun chief reporter.

Mr Coulson and Mr Goodman are to be charged with two conspiracies relating to the request and authorisation of alleged payments to public officials in exchange for information, including a royal phone directory known as the "Green Book".

It is said to have contained contact details for the Royal Family and members of the royal household.

The two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office involve one between 31 August 2002 and 31 January 2003 and another between 31 January and 3 June 2005.

Ms Barber, Mr Kay and Mrs Brooks face one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office between 1 January 2004 and 31 January 2012.

Alison Levitt QC, principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), said: "All of these matters were considered carefully in accordance with the DPP's guidelines on the public interest in cases affecting the media.

"This guidance asks prosecutors to consider whether the public interest served by the conduct in question outweighs the overall criminality before bringing criminal proceedings."

The five are set to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on a date to be fixed.

So far 52 people have been arrested as part of Operation Elveden.

Operation Elveden is being run alongside two other inquiries - Operation Weeting, which is looking at allegations of phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta, an inquiry into accusations of computer hacking and other privacy breaches.

Ms Brooks is certainly racking up the charges .....