Rebekah Brooks was acquitted of conspiring to hack into phones and bribe officials. Brooks is the former head of Rupert Murdoch's British Newspaper branch. Her former lover and Prime Minister David Cameron's ex-media chief Andy Coulson was found guilty of conspiring to intercept messages to break news about celebrities, royalty and crime victims.

According to Reuters, the trial was one of the most expensive trials in British history and Prime Minister Cameron apologized for hiring Coulson and giving him a second chance after having been involved in a prior phone hacking scandal.

"I'm extremely sorry that I employed him, it was the wrong decision," Cameron said. "I asked him questions about if he knew about phone hacking and he said that he didn't and I accepted those assurances and I gave him the job."

The jury reached their verdicts after a week of deliberations. Brooks and Coulson faced charges alongside five others.

According to the New York Times, the trial gave an interesting look into the interworking of tabloid journalism and the systematic eavesdropping of people involved in newsworthy events. The trail also caused one of Murdoch's most successful papers The News of the World to shut down.

The hacking scandal came to the light in July of 2011 when reports arose that the voicemail of an abducted teenager had been intercepted by an investigator with the News of the World. During this time, Brooks was the editor of the newspaper and Coulson served as deputy editor.

Brooks maintained her innocence throughout the trail. Upon her acquittal, she did not comment.

The New York Times reported that many people in Britain expected to see Brooks convicted and will be upset over the jury's decision.

The trail has significantly affected tabloid journalism in Britain.

"The tabloids have become rather less tabloidy, or at least they stay within the law," said John Lloyd, co-founder of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.