Reuters reports — British Prime Minister David Cameron was among top politicians who sent sympathetic messages to Rebekah Brooks when she was forced to resign as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch's U.K. newspaper group over phone-hacking, she told an inquiry on Friday.

Tabloid editor got free horse from UK police force

Brooks is a former editor of the News of the World, which Murdoch shut last July when it emerged its journalists had hacked into the voicemail of public figures and a murdered schoolgirl. She was appearing at a judicial inquiry into press ethics to answer questions about her friendships with British politicians.

VIDEO: Brooks confirms Cameron ties amid scandal

The Leveson Inquiry's lead lawyer, Robert Jay, cut straight to the chase as Brooks began her day-long testimony, pressing her for names of politicians who had expressed their sympathy when she was caught up in the hacking storm in July 2011. At first Brooks sought to evade the question, but eventually said:

"I received some indirect messages from Number 10, Number 11, the Home Office, the Foreign Office." Numbers 10 and 11 Downing Street are the prime minister's and finance minister's offices respectively. Read the full story.

Phone hacking may have been viewed a harmless mischief when the targets were celebrities. Now that news is coming out about crime victims possibly suffering the same fate, Rupert Murdoch's News of the World is on the hot seat.