Fresh arrest over hacking

A UNIVERSITY lecturer has been arrested and questioned over phone-hacking at the News of the World.

Bethany Usher, 31, who worked at the axed Sunday tabloid and its former rival the People, has been bailed until late March.

Ms Usher – questioned by officers in 2006 on suspicion of providing false information for a job at Buckingham Palace, with the apparent intention of working undercover – is the 17th arrest under Scotland Yard’s Operation Weeting. Officers said she was being held in connection with conspiring to intercept communications.

Ms Usher, who worked in the newspaper industry for seven years, is currently a senior journalism lecturer at Teesside University.

The arrest came as Labour MP Peter Hain met detectives over claims his computer was hacked while he was Northern Ireland secretary.