A THIRD NEWS of the World journalist has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking against the newspaper.
The arrest of James Weatherup comes less than a week after the paper apologised to eight victims of phone hacking and set up a compensation fund, BBC reports.
Nine days ago, chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck and ex-news editor Ian Edmondson were also arrested on suspicion of having unlawfully intercepted voicemail messages, a scandal that has engulfed the newspaper and its owner Rupert Murdoch.
Weatherup was arrested earlier today and is being questioned at a London police station. The News of the World has not commented on the arrest.
Weatherup was news editor at the News of the World for about 18 months from 2004 and was one of the inner circle of executives under the then editor Andy Coulsen who later became communications chief for UK Prime Minister David Cameron.
Coulsen has since resigned from his position at Number 10 after he became the focus of the allegations despite consistently denying he had any knowledge of phone hacking taking place at the newspaper during his time as editor.
The Guardian reports that further and more robust searches of the News of the World offices in Wapping in London are expected shortly with police feeling the paper was not fully co-operative during searches conducted last week.
Yesterday, it was reported that the News of the World’s former editor Rebekah Brooks is to be questioned over the allegations.
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