British prosecutors accused ex-Rupert Murdoch aide Rebekah Brooks and five others of obstructing justice Tuesday in the first criminal charges to emerge from the News of the World hacking scandal.

Rebekah and Charlie Brooks to be charged with perverting the course of justice 

The former News International (NI) chief, her husband Charlie Brooks and four people who worked for her were charged with trying to hide evidence from police investigating the interception of voicemails by the now-closed tabloid.

Brooks, 43, and her husband, who is a former racehorse trainer and schoolfriend of Prime Minister David Cameron, criticised the "weak and unjust" decision.

Senior prosecutor Alison Levitt said there was "sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction" in the six cases, while a seventh person arrested had been released without charge.

The others to be charged are Cheryl Carter, Rebekah Brooks's personal assistant; Mark Hanna, head of security at NI; Brooks's chauffeur Paul Edwards, who was employed by NI, and Daryl Jorsling, who provided security for Brooks that was supplied by NI.

All six are due to appear in court in London at a later date, Levitt said.

The charges are a stunning fall from grace for the woman who started on the bottom rung of Murdoch's empire more than two decades ago but eventually became so close to him that she was dubbed his "fifth daughter."

Brooks also moved in the highest circles of British politics, and testified to a press ethics inquiry just last week about her close relationship with Cameron and previous prime ministers.

Levitt said all six were charged with conspiring "with persons unknown to conceal material from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service" between July 6 and July 19, 2011, at the height of the hacking scandal.

Brooks and Carter were charged with conspiring to remove seven boxes of material from the archives of News International, the British newspaper wing of Murdoch's US-based News Corp. empire, between the same dates.

All five except Carter were also charged with conspiring to "conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service" between July 15 and 19, 2011.

Brooks and her husband were arrested in March over the allegations.

She was initially arrested in July over separate allegations of phone hacking and bribing public officials, and she remains on bail for those accusations.

"We have this morning been informed by the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions that we are to be charged with perverting the course of justice," Rebekah and Charlie Brooks said in a statement released to AFP by their spokesman.

"We deplore this weak and unjust decision. After the further unprecedented posturing of the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) we will respond later today after our return from the police station."

She resigned as head of News International in July in the wake of her arrest and of the closure of the News of the World amid public revulsion that it had hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl.