Phone hacking: Police officer arrested over leaks

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

A police officer has been arrested in relation to leaks during the Scotland Yard phone-hacking investigation.

The 51-year-old detective constable was arrested at work on Thursday and has been released on bail until 29 September. He has also been suspended.

A 35-year-old has also been arrested by appointment as part of the hacking investigation, Operation Weeting.

The Met's Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said the officer's arrest was "hugely disappointing".

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-14596815

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This is believed to connected with this report by the Guardian :

Phone hacking: News of the World Hollywood reporter is arrested.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/18/phone-hacking-news-of-the-world

The Guardian published that 2 hours BEFORE Scotland Yard released the information. :rofl:

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. The Guardian report is from yesterday; who believes them to be connected?

Apart from in the general 'phone hacking' way. A celebrity reporter like Desborough is less likely to be connected with a police officer leak than, say, one who worked on the Milly Dowler case (which I would suggest the police arrest is more likely to be about - see eg http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/08/12/uk-newscorp-hacking-dowler-idUKTRE77B3WK20110812 )

On edit: a comment from the Met wouldn't make much sense if it was a Surrey police officer, though. Nevertheless, I'd still say that the celeb gossip hacking is less likely to involve police leaks than hacking for crime reporting purposes

[dipsydoodle]

2. Being discussed live on BBC TV News now.

I very much doubt the BBC would've have said that if it were not to be the case. Its also interesting that the The Guardian have yet to mention this particular arrest given their obsession with this issue.

That was how I knew that the Guardian published 2 hours before official release - the BBC provided that figure in this connection.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. So was this arrest for giving out Desborough's name yesterday?

Are they saying they're now arresting police for giving out the names of people arrested, before an official press release has been issued? Wow - that's a standard the police have never kept themselves to before.

[dipsydoodle]

4. The whole investigation is supposed to be under wraps

There was a provable leak.

The BBC news announcer said that the Guardian have declined to comment.

[dipsydoodle]

9. The relationship between

the Guardian and this police officer apparently goes back to at least February of this year and is believe by some to explain the high number of scoops The Guardian has had on the subject of hacking.

The police officer concerned is either very charitable of something is amiss.

When asked if payments were made to police, the newspaper said in a statement: "In common with all news organisations we have no comment to make on the sources of our journalism." http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3763115/Guardian-cop-arrest-disappointing-say-Met.html

It is of course possible than on the subject of James Desborough The Guardian was "set up" and as soon as they published his name it was clear they fallen for it........mugs.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Confirmation re. The Guardian here.

Detective Arrested For 'Leaking Hacking Info'

He has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office relating to the "unauthorised disclosure of information", Scotland Yard said.

The 51-year-old was arrested at work on Thursday afternoon and has been bailed until September 29 pending further inquiries.

>

Sky's crime correspondent Martin Brunt said he believed the detective had been working on the inquiry since January.

He was held overnight on suspicion of leaking details to The Guardian, which has had a series of scoops about the probe.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16053350

[ikri]

6. There's a hell of a difference

Between leaking the news of a police officer's arrest to a newspaper that's been doing all the running with the hacking story and leaking (or possibly selling) the telephone numbers of crime victims and their relatives to newspapers who would then go on to hack their voicemail to get a good story.

[dipsydoodle]

7. There are two issues

The NOWT hacking enquiry and corruption within the Met. The Guardian would appear to have joined the rest with regard to the latter.

They don't seem to doing too well either :

Guardian Loses Readers Even After Ousting Murdoch Tabloid.

The U.K.’s Guardian took down Britain’s best-selling Sunday newspaper by exposing that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid hacked a murder victim’s voicemail. It may still lose an intensifying battle for British readers.

The Guardian’s U.K. Web traffic fell 2.5 percent in July from the previous month, according to figures provided to Bloomberg by Comscore Inc., whose data is used by companies including Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. That’s even as Guardian reporters’ coverage of phone hacking at the News of the World forced News Corp. to shutter the title. Visits to the Daily Mail, U.K.’s most popular newspaper site, rose 5.2 percent. The Sun, another News Corp. title, was up 15 percent.

For the 190-year-old Guardian, whose parent company posted a 58.6 million-pound ($97 million) operating loss last year, the figures are a fresh source of doubt over the financial viability of a respected combination of analysis, exclusive reporting and nimble digital operations. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Miller said in June that the newspaper, which also led coverage of the WikiLeaks disclosure of classified U.S. diplomatic cables, may run out of cash in three to five years without a reorganization.

“These investigative stories are very expensive and really don’t have much impact on the trajectory of the business,” said Douglas McCabe, a media analyst at Enders Analysis in London. “All this may do is slow the decline temporarily.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-17/guardian-loses-readers-even-after-bringing-down-murdoch-tabloid.html

Overall they are guilty of boring the UK public from the look of things.

[dipsydoodle]

8. Phone hacking: media face 'blackout' on any hacking trials as detective is held

Any criminal trial which arises from the phone hacking investigation is likely to be subjected to a media blackout to avoid prejudicing other trials, sources close to the inquiry have claimed.

If prosecutors decide to charge several people over the allegations surrounding former News of the World journalists, all the defendants would be tried at the same time, The Daily Telegraph has been told.

The parallel police inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption means any trials are likely to be delayed until the spring of 2013 as detectives sift through thousands of documents.

But because of the risk that one or more of the possible defendants could face trial relating to both inquiries, the media is likely to be banned from reporting any of the evidence in any of the trials until all have been concluded.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8712727/Phone-hacking-media-face-blackout-on-any-hacking-trials-as-detective-is-held.html