Sacked News of the World staff appear to have fired a parting shot at their former editor Rebekah Brooks, disguising mocking messages in the crossword of the tabloid's final edition.

Brooks, now the chief executive of News International, reportedly brought in two loyal proofreaders to sanitise Sunday's final edition of any jibes directed at her following the newspaper's spectacular demise during the phone hacking scandal.

But they failed to detect the not-so-cryptic clues that appear to savage her in the crosswords on page 47.

Among the clues in the paper's Quickie puzzle were: "Brook", "stink", "catastrophe" and "digital protection".