Five journalists at Sun arrested over police payments

By RORY REYNOLDS
Published on Sunday 12 February 2012 00:00

FIVE senior journalists at the Sun, including the deputy editor, have been arrested over allegations of inappropriate payments to police and public officials.

Geoff Webster is the most senior of the staff held in a series of early-morning raids on properties in London and Kent.

The remaining four were named as picture editor John Edwards, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker, news editor John Sturgis and chief reporter John Kay, who has worked on the paper for nearly 40 years.

For the first time, the arrests in the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Elveden went beyond payments to police.

A 39-year-old serving Surrey police officer, a 39-year-old female Ministry of Defence employee and a 36-year-old serviceman were also arrested at their homes on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to both.

They are being questioned at police stations in London and Wiltshire.

The scale of the arrests raised fears that the Sun might suffer the same fate as its stablemate, the News Of The World, which was closed down by parent company News International last year over allegations of the widespread use of phone-hacking by staff. But NI chairman Rupert Murdoch moved swiftly to reassure staff.

In an internal memo, chief executive Tom Mockridge said he had received a “personal assurance” from Murdoch that he plans to continue to own and publish the Sun.

Operation Elveden was launched as the phone-hacking scandal erupted last July with allegations about the now-defunct News Of The World targeting murdered teenager Milly Dowler’s mobile phone.

Its remit has now broadened to include suspected corruption involving public officials who are not police officers. Between the two investigations, 38 suspects have now been detained.

The home addresses of all eight suspects arrested yesterday were being searched, and officers were also carrying out searches at the offices of News International in Wapping, east London, the Metropolitan Police said.

Dominic Mohan, editor of the Sun, said in a statement last night: “I’m as shocked as anyone by today’s arrests but am determined to lead the Sun through these difficult times. I have a brilliant staff and we have a duty to serve our readers and will continue to do that. Our focus is on putting out Monday’s newspaper.”

A statement from News Corporation, parent company of News International, which owns the Sun and the Times newspapers, confirmed that five employees of the Sun were among those arrested.

It said its own management and standards committee (MSC) had provided information to the Elveden investigation which led to the arrests. I t also provided the option of legal representation to those arrested.

“News Corporation remains committed to ensuring that unacceptable news-gathering practices by individuals in the past will not be repeated and last summer authorised the MSC to co-operate with the relevant authorities,” it said.

“News Corporation maintains its total support to the ongoing work of the MSC and is committed to making certain that legitimate journalism is vigorously pursued in both the public interest and in full compliance with the law.”

The arrests come two weeks after four former and current Sun journalists and a serving Metropolitan Police officer were arrested over alleged illegal police payments.

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