REBEKAH Brooks, a former editor of the News of the World who is on trial for phone-hacking, was herself repeatedly targeted for voicemail interception by the private investigator working for the tabloid, a court heard.

Questioning a police officer about notebooks found in the home of the investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, that included details on Ms Brooks, her counsel Jonathan Laidlaw asked whether Ms Brooks herself had been the victim of voicemail message interceptions.

"She was targeted, yes," the officer, Detective Constable Tim Hargreaves, replied.

Mr Laidlaw told the court Ms Brooks was asked at one point if she would be prepared to be a witness for the prosecution.

Former News International chief executive Ms Brooks, 45, of Churchill, Oxfordshire; ex-spin doctor Andy Coulson, also 45, from Charing in Kent; Ian Edmondson, 44, from Raynes Park, south west London; and the tabloid's ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73, from Woodford Green, Essex, all deny conspiring with others to hack phones between October 3, 2000 and August 9, 2006.

Mulcaire has admitted phone hacking.