Charles Patrick Evelyn Brooks (born 3 March 1963) is a British socialite, newspaper columnist, racehorse trainer and former amateur jockey.
The couple are seen as leading lights of the so-called 'Chipping Norton set', a politically influential clique close to the former leadership of the Conservative Party.
[4] Educated at Eton College, which he attended with future Prime Minister David Cameron (three years his junior), Brooks became an amateur jockey and assistant racehorse trainer to Fred Winter.
[6] They were discovered by cleaner Fernando Nascimento on a routine rubbish collection the day after Brooks' wife Rebekah was arrested at a south London police station in connection with the phone hacking investigation.
Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, Charlie Brooks said he had done something "very stupid" but that the items stashed in an underground car park at the couple's London flat were his.
The court heard that the property was hidden on 17 July 2011, the day police interviewed Mrs Brooks and carried out searches.
He denied conspiring with his wife and News International head of security Mark Hanna to pervert the course of justice by concealing potential evidence.
[3] On 15 October 2014 Brooks lost his bid to recover the £600,000 in legal fees he had incurred as a result of being a co-defendant in the phone-hacking trial.
Mr Justice Saunders said he was satisfied that the conduct of Brooks and his co-defendant, the News of the World's former managing editor Stuart Kuttner, had "brought suspicion on themselves and misled the prosecution into thinking that the case against them was stronger than it was".