This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Rebekah Brooks has told the Old Bailey that she regrets the Sun's "cruel and harsh" attack on Labour MP Clare Short over the Page 3 row.

Brooks apologised at the Old Bailey on Thursday for the "personal" targeting of Short in January 2004, when she was the paper's editor and the tabloid branded her a "killjoy" and "fat and jealous" following the Labour MP's criticism of its Page 3 girls.

In the witness box for a fifth day in the phone-hacking trial, Brooks said: "There's a huge debate about Page 3 – it's constant, it's probably still going on – from time to time people would launch a campaign.

"This was one where again the reaction of the paper – I'm the editor, my responsibility – was cruel and harsh. We did it in the heat of the moment: keep your hands off Page 3. It was too personal."

The Page 3 row was one of several "mistakes" Brooks said she had made during her editorship.

Citing four of those, she described a headline in 2003 about boxer Frank Bruno – "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" as a "terrible mistake".

She had taken a copy of the front page home and her then husband Ross Kemp said: "What are you doing?" Brooks said she had had a "complete blind spot".

She immediately rang in to change the headline, apologised the next day and took a course with a mental health charity.

"The speed of decisions at the Sun often cause lapses of judgment," Brooks told the jury. "I personally made lots of mistakes during my 10-12 years as deputy editor or editor of a newspaper."

She cited the celebratory headline "Ship, Ship Hooray," on the day after Harold Shipman, the serial killer, died as "bad taste". She had sanctioned it after a press release had come in from David Blunkett. "The home secretary put out statement that they had opened a bottle of champagne."

Another of her regrets was over the Sun's attack on Haringey children's services head Sharon Shoesmith following the death of Baby P.

Brooks admitted that posting a photographer outside Shoesmith's home was "cruel, harsh and over the top".

Brooks denies four charges linked to the phone-hacking scandal.

The trial continues.