12 Feb 2013

Operation Elveden: police officer arrested

A 50-year-old police officer is arrested under Operation Elveden, the investigation largely focused on “inappropriate payments” by the media to police and public officials.

Metropolitan Police (picture: Getty)

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Service arrested the man, a Metropolitan police officer in the territorial policing command in a south London borough, at his home in Wimbledon.

He was arrested a 6am on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. He is being interviewed at a south London police station and a search of his property is being conducted.

The arrest is a result of information provided by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation through the media organisation’s management and standards committee – which was set up to take responsibility for all matters relating to the phone-hacking scandal at the now-defunct News of the World.

The Metropolitan police said the arrest “relates to suspected payments to a police officer and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately”.

The arrest was the 60th under the operation.