Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting. Before the News of the World Thurlbeck worked as a reporter for the Harrow Observer.

Thurlbeck was educated at Bede Grammar School in Sunderland, followed by the University of Lancaster.

In 1998 Thurlbeck was the newspaper journalist who 'outed' the Cabinet Minister Nick Brown as gay. Thurlbeck also broke the story that Jeffrey Archer had committed perjury during his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star. The scoop won Thurlbeck three industry awards including Scoop of the Year 1999 from the London Press Club.

At the turn of the millenium Thurlbeck, under the codename "George", acted as an "unpaid source" for the police. In return he received information from the Police National Computer which principally consisted of the previous convictions of various criminals. In 2000 Thurlbeck and the police officer with whom he worked were cleared of corruption charges with regard to their working relationship.

James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation. He is the former chairman and chief executive of News Corp., Europe and Asia, overseeing assets such as News International (British newspapers), SKY Italia (satellite television in Italy), Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV (satellite television in Asia).

He sits on the News Corporation board of directors and is a member of the office of the chairman. He formerly held a non-executive chair at British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation has a controlling minority stake.

He was formerly an executive vice president of News Corporation, the controlling shareholder of BSkyB, and served on the boards of directors of News Datacom and of News Corporation.

Murdoch is a British citizen by birth and a naturalised U.S. citizen. He lost Australian citizenship when his father became a U.S. citizen, but he is eligible to reclaim Australian citizenship.

David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE (born 2 May 1975) is an English association footballer who plays for Los Angeles Galaxy. He has played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, Milan, and the England national team for which he holds the appearance record for an outfield player.

Beckham's career began when he signed a professional contract with Manchester United, making his first-team debut in 1992 aged 17. During his time there, United won the Premier League title six times, the FA Cup twice, and the UEFA Champions League in 1999. He left Manchester United to sign for Real Madrid in 2003, where he remained for four seasons, clinching the La Liga championship in his final season with the club. In January 2007, it was announced that Beckham would leave Real Madrid for the Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy, signing a five-year contract with them on 1 July 2007. While a Galaxy player, he spent two loan spells in Italy with Milan in 2009 and 2010. On 20 November 2011, he joined an elite group of players to have won three league titles in three different countries, when Los Angeles won their third MLS Cup.

Rebecca Loos (born Rebecca Loos Bartholdi; 19 June 1977)^{[citation needed]} is a Spanish-born Anglo-Dutch model and media personality, who was brought to media attention following claims that she conducted an affair with the married football player David Beckham—while employed as his personal assistant. These allegations made her into a media personality, and she has since appeared on several reality television series, magazine covers and in other media.

Loos was born in Madrid, Spain, but has Dutch citizenship. Her father was Leonard Loos Bartholdi, a Dutch diplomat, and her mother, Elizabeth Loos, is originally from Surrey, England. Growing up, she was privately educated at Runnymede College in Madrid. After moving back to Madrid in 2002, Loos worked for an American investment bank. She is a second cousin of Piers Morgan.

When the former England football captain David Beckham moved to Real Madrid, Loos became his personal assistant during the transition period, alongside SFX agent and the former Australian international footballer Andy Bernal, who spoke Spanish fluently.

Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan police in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.

Edmondson worked for News of the World twice. Before landing his first position at News of the World Edmondson worked as a freelance reporter. He was initially hired by News of the World as a general news reporter. He went on to spent 18 months as the paper's crime correspondent before moving to rival tabloid The People in 2000 as assistant news editor. He progressed through deputy news editor and news editor and was promoted to assistant editor (news) in 2003. Edmondson was hired to the News of the World editorial team by Neil Wallis, who was Andy Coulson's deputy editor in November 2004. Coulson promoted Edmondson to assistant editor of the news department in October 2005.

He was allegedly one of Coulson's inner circle of executives when Coulson was editor of the paper, according to a former reporter from the News of the World.