[2] In December 2000, Rees was found guilty of conspiring to plant cocaine on an innocent woman in order to discredit her in a child custody battle and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Nicholas Hilliard QC, for the prosecution, said that defence lawyers might not be able to examine all the documents in the case (750,000 pages dating back over 24 years) in order to ensure a fair trial.
[4] After the collapse of the Old Bailey trial in March 2011 it was revealed that Rees had earned £150,000 a year from the News of the World for supplying illegally obtained information about people in the public eye.
[4][5] After Rees completed his prison sentence for perverting the course of justice, he was hired again by the News of the World, at the time edited by Andy Coulson.
[6] Rees's activities were described as a "devastating pattern of illegal behaviour",[6] and far exceeding those of any of the other investigators commissioned by News Corporation who used illicit means to target prominent figures.
[2] The Guardian queried why the Metropolitan Police had chosen to exclude a very large quantity of Rees material from investigation by its Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking.
[5] In October 2014 Rees, along with others charged in 2009 and acquitted in 2011 (former Detective Sergeant Sid Fillery, brothers Glenn and Garry Vian, and builder James Cook) launched a £4 million lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police.