Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks in court over public official bribery charges Mrs Brooks, former editor of The Sun, is accused of conspiring with John Kay, The Sun's ex-chief reporter, to pay Bettina Jordan-Barber, a Ministry of Defence official, around £100,000 for information used in stories that appeared in The Sun. The judge, Mr Justice Fulford, released all five on conditional bail until a plea and case management hearing on March 8, which is likely to be held at the Old Bailey again. Mr Coulson, 44, and Mr Goodman, 55, face two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office - one between August 31, 2002 and January 31, 2003, and the other between January 31 and June 3, 2005. Mrs Brooks, 44, Mr Kay, 69, and Mrs Jordan-Barber, 39, each face one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office between January 1, 2004 and January 31 this year. The charges followed investigations conducted as part of Scotland Yard's Operation Elveden into alleged corrupt payments by journalists to police officers and other public officials. A total of 53 people have been arrested so far as part of the investigation, including 28 current or former journalists, six police officers and 12 current or former public officials including prison officers and members of the armed forces. The latest arrest came when a 38-year-old woman journalist was held at her home in Sussex early this morning on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and suspicion of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office. She was bailed until March.