A judge dismissed the jury at Britain's phone-hacking trial on Wednesday after it failed to reach a verdict on two final counts, one day after convicting a former editor of hacking. Judge John Saunders ended the trial after jurors said they could not agree whether former News of the World editor Andy Coulson and ex-royal editor Clive Goodman were guilty of paying police officers for royal phone directories.
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On Tuesday the jury unanimously convicted Coulson, who served as Prime Minister David Cameron's spin doctor between 2007 and 2011, of conspiring to hack phones. Ex-editor Rebekah Brooks and four others were acquitted. Prosecutors said they would announce Monday whether they would seek a retrial. The trial — one of the longest and most expensive in British history — was triggered by revelations that the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World had routinely eavesdropped on the voicemails of politicians, celebrities and others.
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