ONE OF THE DETECTIVES involved in Scotland Yard’s investigation into News of the World phone hacking allegations has been arrested on suspicion of leaking information.
The Metropolitan Police said today that the 51-year-old was arrested as he arrived at work yesterday afternoon and he has since been suspended.
The Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said she had made the need for operational security “very clear when I took on this investigation”.
“It is hugely disappointing that this may not have been adhered to,” she added.
The Met did not disclose the recipient of the allegedly leaked information. The Guardian, which has been publishing its own investigative pieces on the phone hacking scandal, issued a statement today saying it had “no comment to make on the sources of our journalism”. It added:
On the broader point raised by the arrest, journalists would no doubt be concerned if conversations between off-the-record sources and reporters came routinely to be regarded as criminal activity.
A second man arrested has been identified by Sky News as former NOTW reporter Dan Evans.
Evans was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages. Evans, who joined the paper in 2005, was suspended last year after allegations he attempted to access the messages of actress Sienna Miller’s stepmother.
- Additional reporting by the AP
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