By Martin Hickman

Rebekah Brooks appeared to believe that reports on the hacking of Milly Dowler were part of a co-ordinated exercise against News International by the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and members of the Labour Party.

On 5 July 2011, the day after the Guardian broke the news that the News of the World had targeted the missing schoolgirl, Mrs Brooks emailed the then editor of the Times, James Harding, the phone hacking trial heard. In the message read out to the jury, News International's chief executive asked Mr Harding: "Can you find out from Sean [O'Neill, Times crime correspondent] how he knows page 1 and 3 are true?"

Mrs Brooks, who was editor of the News of the World when it targeted the schoolgirl, but was on holiday when it happened, wrote: "We have zero veracity on the truth of these allegations."

She explained that News International had not been informed by the Metropolitan Police or Surrey Police that the paper had targeted Milly Dowler.

She complained to Mr Harding: "This is a proper BBC-Guardian-Old Labour hit." Referring to the Labour MP Tom Watson, she added: "Tom Watson tweeted earlier yesterday that exciting things were coming."

Neil Saunders, representing Mrs Brooks's husband Charlie, raised the e-mail during discussion of the leaking of police material to the Guardian earlier in 2011. No response from Mr Harding was read to the jury. He is now head of BBC News.