The former head of security at News International told a colleague on the day the News of the World tabloid was closed down that he had dug a hole and "burned stuff", a London court heard on Monday.

News of the World was shut down in July 2011 at the height of public outrage that journalists had hacked voicemail messages, including those of a murdered schoolgirl.

Seven people, including former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, are on trial for a variety of offences stemming from police investigations into phone hacking.

The Old Bailey heard that after the final edition of the News of the World had gone to press and the staff had left on July 9, Mark Hanna, then head of security at News International went for drink with one of his security team, Robert Hernandez.

Mr Hernandez told the court they spent about two hours in a pub near the offices, during which time Hanna talked about how he had provided protection for Brooks, whom he described as kind and a good boss, before going on to discuss the closure of the News of the World for another 10 to 15 minutes.

"He mentioned one time he dug a hole in his garden and burnt stuff," Mr Hernandez said.

"I asked him if it was papers. He didn't reply."

Hanna is accused with Brooks of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by concealing material from police - charges they deny.

Under questioning from Hanna's lawyer, William Clegg, Mr Hernandez agreed they had talked about a variety of subjects.

"It was a fire in his garden; we know not when and we know not what," Mr Clegg put to him.

"That's correct," Mr Hernandez replied.

"For all I know he could have been burning bank statements."

Bosses told 'rotting in hell would be too good a punishment'

Another witness Glen Jagger, the security operations manager for News International, said bosses had received "quite a bit" of hate mail at the time, and there had been actual threats made to executives including Brooks.

Some of this hate mail was discovered at Hanna's home, where he had taken it to assess what risk, if any, the authors posed, the court was told.

Mr Clegg read out some excerpts from the mail which included phrases such as "rotting in hell would be too good a punishment", while another said "the universal law of karma will exact its revenge".

Last week, the trial heard how Brooks and her husband Charlie allegedly arranged an elaborate plan to hide two bags containing computers and other material from detectives before they searched the couple's London apartment.

The court was told on Monday that the bags contained two laptops, one of which had a News International tag, an iPad, a digital voice recorder, a USB stick, as well as a number of opened and unopened letters addressed to the couple.

There were also pills prescribed to Brooks, a British Kunekune Pig Society newsletter and a conker.

An inventory of the bags shown to the jury also revealed there was a magazine titled Lesbian Lovers and a number of pornographic DVDs, with titles such as Instant Lesbian, Bride of Sin and Lesbian Psychodramas.

Reuters