DETAILS of police searches in the hacking inquiry have been revealed, with one lawyer exclaiming:

"This is not Carry On Policing, is it?"

Detective Constable Alan Pritchard was questioned about the search of Rebekah Brooks's office at News International (NI), just hours after she resigned and was escorted off the premises in July 2011.

The search, carried out with the consent of an NI executive, led to the seizure of computer equipment including laptops, iPads, and memory sticks, the Old Bailey trial was told.

But Mrs Brooks's paperwork was stored in a filing cabinet beyond the designated search area, the court heard. Her lawyer, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, pressed the witness on what police were looking for, exclaiming: "This is not Carry On Policing, is it?"

Det Con Pritchard said he had not been privy to discussions before the search.

The Old Bailey trial was then told about a search of Brooks's London flat two days later, after the former NI chief executive had been arrested. There, police seized computer equipment including laptops, a mobile phone and DVDs. They also found a torn-up and binned draft resignation letter.

Rebekah Brooks, 44, and her racehorse trainer husband Charles Brooks, 50, both of Churchill, Oxfordshire, deny conspiring to pervert the course of justice.

Seven defendants deny all the charges against them.

The trial continues today.