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| Policeman and journalist charged in payments probe | Policeman and journalist charged in payments probe |
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| A former Met Police officer and a journalist from The Sun are to be charged in connection with alleged illegal payments for information. | A former Met Police officer and a journalist from The Sun are to be charged in connection with alleged illegal payments for information. |
| Paul Flattley and Sun defence editor Virginia Wheeler will be charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office, prosecutors said. | |
| The officer was allegedly paid more than £6,000 for information, including about the death of a 14-year-old girl. | |
| Eight people have now been charged in connection with the payments probe. | |
| The charges come as a result of Operation Elveden, Scotland Yard's inquiry into alleged payments made to police and public officials by journalists, launched in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal. | |
| Alison Levitt QC, the principal legal advisor to the Director of Public Prosecutions at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "We have concluded, following a careful review of the evidence, that former Metropolitan Police Service police constable, Paul Flattley, and Virginia Wheeler, a journalist at The Sun newspaper, should be charged with conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office." | |
| Her statement described how Mr Flattley was allegedly paid about £4,000 in the form of cheques and £2,450 in cash by the Sun newspaper between 25 May 2008 and 13 September 2011. | |
| At the time he was a serving police constable with the Met, meaning he allegedly breached the terms of his employment. | |
| Ms Levitt continued: "The information provided included information about the tragic death of a 14-year-old girl, as well as details about both suspects and victims of accidents, incidents and crimes. | |
| "This included, but was not limited to, information about high-profile individuals and those associated with them." | |
| Operation Elveden runs alongside Operation Weeting, the investigation into alleged phone hacking, primarily at the News of the World. | |
| A third investigation, Operation Tuleta, is probing the alleged hacking of emails to obtain private information by journalists. | |
| Some 56 people have been arrested under Operation Elveden, eight of whom have been serving or retired police officers. | |
| Earlier this month Det Ch Insp April Casburn, 53, of the Met Police was the first to be convicted of trying to sell information on the phone-hacking probe to the News of the World. |