Times reporter arrested over police blogger hacking

Senior executives at The Times newspaper could be questioned by police investigating allegations of computer hacking after a former reporter was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Patrick Foster, 28, a former media reporter at Rupert Murdoch’s paper, was arrested at his North London home this morning for allegedly hacking into the email account of an anonymous police blogger named Nightjack in 2009.

The Times subsequently went to the High Court and successfully overturned an injunction banning them from naming Nightjack as Lancashire Police detective Richard Horton.

At the hearing before Mr Justice Eady in June 2009, lawyers for the newspaper argued that Mr Foster had used legitimate journalistic methods to identify Mr Horton.

But the paper’s editor James Harding was later forced to apologise to Mr Justice Eady and Mr Horton, after admitting senior figures had failed to disclose that they knew about the computer hacking when the hearing took place.

In March this year the newspaper’s former legal chief, Alastair Brett, came under fire when he gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards admitting he had made a “mistake” by failing to divulge that he knew about the hacking before the Times went to court.

Scotland Yard today confirmed that a 28-year-old journalist had been arrested over the alleged computer hacking, but stating that he was also being questioned over conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, related to the alleged cover up.

Mr Foster’s arrest is the 11th as part of Operation Tuleta, a Metropolitan Police Investigation into alleged computer hacking by journalists, but the first related to the Nightjack incident.

News International, publisher of Times, declined to comment on Mr Foster’s arrest.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Wednesday: “Officers from Operation Tuleta, the investigation into criminal breaches of privacy including computer hacking which is being carried out in conjunction with MPS phone-hacking inquiries, arrested a man in North London this morning, 29 August.

“The 28-year-old man, a journalist (Tuleta arrest 11) was arrested at his home address at approximately 07.00 hrs for suspected offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and suspected conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1977

“He is being questioned at a North London police station about alleged computer hacking relating to the identification of a previously anonymous blogger in 2009.”

News International, publisher of Times, declined to comment on Mr Foster’s arrest.