LONDON, UK– The continuing fallout of Rupert Murdoch’s phone hacking scandal has revealed an illicit affair between former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks and former News of the World editor and Conservative party communications director Andy Coulson. Evidence of the affair has further incriminated both parties.

In an article for the Associated Press by Jill Lawless, Prosecutor Andrew Edis said “that as at February 2004 they had been having an affair which had lasted at least six years.” The level of former intimacy between the two and the length of their affair suggests that both knew the details of the hackings, including that of the phone of thirteen-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler. A letter from Brooks to Coulson uncovered during the 2011 investigation uncovered their illicit relationship, in which Brooks wrote “You [Coulson] are my very best friend. I tell you everything, I confide in you, I seek your advice, I love you, care about you, worry about you [sic].”

However, the discovery of the affair is just the tip of the iceberg. Currently, digital communications allegedly connecting Coulson to the hackings have been presented. Brooks and her current husband, Charlie Brooks, face charges of destroying evidence.

As the case drags on through its second month, more than 160 police officers and staff members have been implicated, according to Sarah Lyall of The New York Times, setting the stage for dozens of future trials. Though the days of News of the World have ended, the wake of its widespread privacy infringements continues to expand, unearthing over a thousand victims in the process.