Brooks at centre of new phone hacking inquiry
Rupert Murdoch's former chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, is at the centre of a new inquiry into whether a senior Scotland Yard officer gave her inside information about the progress of the original failed phone-hacking investigation.
Two days before the launch of Mr Murdoch's new 'Sun on Sunday', the Independent Police Complaints Commission was examining the nature of a link between the senior Metropolitan Police officer and an executive at News International (NI).
The unnamed senior officer worked in 2006 on the original phone-hacking inquiry, which failed to follow up evidence of wrongdoing at NI's now-closed Sunday tabloid, the 'News of the World'. The NI executive is understood to be Ms Brooks.
Witness
There is no suggestion the officer was paid. Ms Brooks is being treated as a witness.
The IPCC began its latest investigation after receiving a referral from Operation Elveden, the Met inquiry into the corruption of public officials.
The information is believed to have been passed to the NI executive after Goodman and Mulcaire were arrested in 2006.
The IPCC will be seeking to establish whether the information was "legitimately" in the public domain, whether the officer committed a crime, or if he should face a charge of misconduct. (© Independent News Service)
- Martin Hickman and Paul Peachey in London
Irish Independent
