UK detective on trial over phone hacking

2013-01-07 22:03

London - A senior British counter-terrorism detective
committed a "gross breach" of public trust by trying to sell
information to Rupert Murdoch's News of the World about the police
investigation into the tabloid's illegal phone hacking, a prosecutor told a
court on Monday.

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn is charged with
misconduct for allegedly phoning the newspaper and offering to pass on
information about whether London's police force would reopen its stalled
hacking investigation.

Prosecutor Mark Bryant-Heron told a jury at Southwark
Crown Court that Casburn "sought to undermine a highly sensitive and high
profile investigation" when she phoned the tabloid's news desk in
September 2010 offering to pass on the information.

"It was a gross breach of the trust that the public
places in a police officer not to disclose information on a current investigation
in an unauthorised way, or to offer to do so in the future for payment,"
he said.

Prosecutors said the newspaper did not print a story
based on her call and no money changed hands.

Casburn, 53, who headed the Metropolitan Police terrorist
financing investigation unit, denies a charge of misconduct in public office.
She also faces a charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act which will be
dealt with separately.

The prosecutor said that in a police statement Casburn
admitted phoning the newspaper but denied asking for money.

Tim Wood, the News of the World news editor who took the
call, told the court that Casburn had expressed concern that counter-terrorism
resources were being diverted to the phone hacking investigation.

He said she also complained of interference from former
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, a hacking victim and vocal Murdoch critic.

"The one thing that stands out in my mind is the
fact that she kept going on about Lord Prescott," Wood said. "Her
saying that he was pressing for them to put charges on the News of the World,
and she was saying that she felt it was wrong that he was interfering in the
scandal, so to speak, and she resented that."

Arrested for hacking

A News of the World reporter and a private investigator
were jailed in 2007 for hacking into the voicemails of royal aides. But the
newspaper denied there was a wider problem, and a police investigation did not
lead to further charges.

Police reopened the investigation in early 2011 amid new
evidence about the scale of the law-breaking.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in
July 2011 after revelations that it had regularly eavesdropped on the telephone
voicemails of celebrities and crime victims in its search for scoops.

The scandal sparked a public inquiry and police
investigations into phone hacking, bribery and other illegal practices that
have seen dozens of people arrested.

Casburn is the first suspect to come to trial. Several
others have been charged and await trial, including former Murdoch executive
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, an ex-communications chief to Prime Minister
David Cameron.