Jury at UK phone-hacking trial discharged after failing to reach verdict on final 2 counts

LONDON – A judge on Wednesday dismissed the jury at Britain’s phone-hacking trial after it failed to reach a verdict on two final counts, having convicted a former editor of hacking a day earlier.

Judge John Saunders officially 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.

On Tuesday the jury unanimously convicted Coulson of conspiring to hack phones. Ex-editor Rebekah Brooks and four others were acquitted.

Prosecutors must now decide whether to seek a retrial. They said they would announce their decision on Monday.

Coulson, who served as Prime Minister David Cameron’s spin doctor between 2007 and 2011, faces up to two years in jail on the hacking charge.

The jury of eight women and three men deliberated for eight days, after a trial lasting almost eight months that drew intense interest from around the world.

Saunders told the 11 jurors that the country owed them a “debt of gratitude,” and exempted them from further jury service for life.