LONDON (REUTERS) - Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World newspaper, denied on Tuesday knowing anything about the 2002 hacking of the mobile phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The revelation in 2011 that Dowler's phone had been hacked by journalists on the tabloid while she had been missing led to widespread public condemnation that caused Murdoch to shut the 168-year-old paper and forced Brooks to resign as chief executive of News International, News Corp.'s British newspaper arm.

Asked whether she had anything to do with a journalist tasking a private detective to hack Dowler's phone, she said: "No I didn't", saying she first learned the News of the World had hacked the phone on July 4, 2011.

Brooks denies conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages on mobile phones, authorising illegal payments to public officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

The long-running trial is due to conclude in May.