Exposed police blogger to sue Times over hacking

A DETECTIVE unmasked as the writer of an anonymous blog after a Times journalist hacked into his e-mail is suing the paper for damages, his solicitor has said.

Lancashire policeman Richard Horton, who was exposed by the News International title as the author of the award-winning NightJack blog in 2009, has filed a civil claim with the High Court in London.

He is claiming aggravated and exemplary damages from Times Newspapers for breach of confidence, misuse of private information and deceit, according to his lawyer Patrick Daulby.

News International declined to comment.

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The Leveson Inquiry into press standards has heard that former Times reporter Patrick Foster hacked into Mr Horton’s e-mails in May 2009 to discover he was behind the NightJack blog.

Mr Foster admitted to the paper’s then legal manager, Alastair Brett. and then home news editor, Martin Barrow, what he had done.

Mr Brett told the inquiry he was furious when he heard, and ordered the reporter to find a way of establishing that Mr Horton was the author of the blog through sources in the public domain, which Mr Foster subsequently did.

Times editor James Harding told the Leveson Inquiry in February that he “sorely regretted” the intrusion and “expected better” of his paper.

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