Police chief ‘in no doubt’ information was bought

THE leader of Scotland’s biggest police force said he had launched 45 probes into leaks to the press and was in “no doubt” that individuals were receiving money for passing on information.

THE leader of Scotland’s biggest police force said he had launched 45 probes into leaks to the press and was in “no doubt” that individuals were receiving money for passing on information.

Chief Constable Stephen House, who is seen as the frontrunner to head up the new national force when it is launched next year, told the Leveson Inquiry that most of the suspected leaks related to celebrities.

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“Contact with the media is part of the job, but must be within certain bounds, professional and for the public good,” he said.

Meanwhile, a journalist told the inquiry that a Scotland Yard report warning officers against unauthorised contact with the press read like an “East German ministry of information manual”. Sean O’Neill, crime editor of the Times, said Elizabeth Filkin’s review of the Met’s meetings with journalists had led to a “climate of fear”. “I found this document patronising and dangerous for future accountability of the police,” he said.

“It has already created a climate of fear in which police officers – who may want to pass on information that is in the public but not the corporate interest – are afraid to talk.”

The inquiry was set up to investigate reports of phone hacking and police payments involving the now defunct tabloid, News of the World.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was questioned by police again yesterday, this time about payments to Ministry of Defence officials. She is understood to have been asked about evidence handed over by News Corporation.

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