REBEKAH Brooks was a demanding editor who wanted to "get stories into the newspaper", a lawyer has told her phone-hacking trial in Britain.
But Justin Walford, who worked as an in-house lawyer at the company that published The Sun and the News of the World (NotW), said he was never asked to give advice about phone hacking, and never felt under any financial pressure while checking stories for legal pitfalls.
Walford, deputy legal manager at News Group Newspapers, told the Old Bailey he was mainly responsible for legal checks on The Sun, but would stand in for legal manager Tom Crone in checking its now-defunct weekly sister title the NotW.
He told the court that lawyers would "libel read" both The Sun and the NotW before they were published, then make suggestions for possible changes.
Describing Brooks, Walford told jurors: "I think she was a very demanding editor. She wanted high standards. She was very demanding in my dealings with her."
He said she would often argue with legal queries rather than accepting them without discussion.
"She was passionate about the paper and what she wanted to get into the newspaper and we had many an argument about material going into the paper," he said.
"She is a strong personality, she has strong views and she expected hard work and everyone pulling in the same direction to get stories into the newspaper.
"It was not the case where a lawyer could just make a few legal marks and it would be quickly forgotten. She would want an explanation why those marks had been made."
Asked to describe Brooks' fellow defendant Andy Coulson, Walford said: "I think Andy Coulson was an editor who wanted to get stories into the paper.
"I didn't libel read the paper (the NotW) that many times when he was editor but he listened to advice."
He said Coulson would also argue over material to go in the paper, but would "take seriously" the legal advice he was given.
Brooks, 45; former NotW editor Andy Coulson, also 45; former NotW head of news Ian Edmondson, 44, and the tabloid's ex-managing editor Stuart Kuttner, 73 are on trial for conspiring with others to hack phones between October 3, 2000 and August 9, 2006.
Walford told the court on Monday: "Clearly editors want to get stories into the newspapers and, quite rightly, they will push the lawyer to agree the copy they want to put in."
But he said he never felt any financial pressure to allow material in.
"I try to give advice and if editors don't like it, it's up to them. It's their decision to publish, not the lawyer's.
"I have never felt under financial pressure or anything like that."
He said he could not remember being asked to give any advice on phone hacking, and had no cause to suspect that any story had been sourced in that way.
And he told the court he could not remember private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's name being mentioned until he was arrested alongside NotW royal editor Clive Goodman in 2006.
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