Chris Pharo, head of news at the Sun, tells trial his arrest was ‘seismic shock’

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/17/chris-pharo-trial-the-sun-arrest-seismic-shock

Version 0 of 1.

The Sun’s head of news has described the day he was arrested as “the most distressing moment of my life”, telling jurors in his trial that it was a “seismic” shock.

Chris Pharo, who is accused of paying public officials for stories, was arrested in January 2012. He described how 14 police officers raided his flat in Wapping, turning it upside down to see if he had hidden anything in relation to their investigation.

“They overturned every drawer in the flat, they searched through the cereal boxes, they looked in books, DVD cases,” Pharo told the jury at Kingston crown court on Monday morning.

“I think what was most shocking was, there’s an underfloor heating grill around edge of the living room and they removed the wooden covers and then used [something] like a car wing mirror on an extendable rod, which they put under the floorboards to see if I had secreted anything there.”

Pharo is charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in public office by allegedly approving payments to public officials for stories. He denies the charges.

He told the court how he was telephoned by police and asked to come to the station. He did not know at the time he was going to be arrested. He was met by a detective and immediately arrested.

“I was read my rights and arrested me. It was possibly the most distressing moment of my life. It was absolutely seismic in terms of the shock,” he told jurors.

The police took his mobile phone and asked him to remove his tie, his belt and his shoelaces; he was kept in a cell for an hour an a half before being interviewed. On advice of his lawyer he did not answer questions.

Pharo said he was dismayed to find that he was presented with documents provided by the Sun’s parent company, some of which potentially revealed “sacrosanct” sources for stories.

“I found myself in the middle of the most shocking day of my life. I was in the police station, police put in front of me documents given to them by a company that I’ve worked for, for the best part of 25 years, and many of those relating to sources at the paper. In my opinion protecting journalist sources is sacrosanct in all my profession,” Pharo said.

Earlier in the trial, Pharo quipped that he spent “half” his time in Rebekah Brooks’s office when she was the editor of the Sun, getting her to authorise cash payments for stories. It was the paper’s policy that all cash payments were to be approved by her or her deputy.

Pharo described stories, such as one revealing “nurses bonking” at Broadmoor, as “dramatically” in the public interest, as were photographs of Jimmy Savile posing with Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper.

Pharo is accused of paying for leaks from Robert Neave, a healthcare assistant at the high-security Broadmoor hospital, which holds Britain’s most notorious killers, including Sutcliffe and Kenneth Erskine, the Stockwell Strangler.

Pharo told the court he used to live in Crowthorne, near Broadmoor, and as it was the biggest employer in the village, gossip about inmates and staff was commonplace. “I am aware of the fact people talk about the hospital – it is the single biggest local employer, and it looms large over the village’, he said.

He recalled how the paper had been close to revealing that Savile was under investigation by Surrey police.

Under examination by his own barrister, Pharo was quizzed about a series of emails from reporters on the paper seeking approval for cash payments for police contacts and other contacts within the public service.

He said police contact could mean “a myriad” of things, and was “shorthand” used by journalists to get cash payments for their sources.

“Does it mean it has to be a serving police officer?” asked his counsel, Nigel Rumfitt, QC about one email requesting cash for “police contact”.

Pharo replied: “Absolutely not.”

He added that some contacts would also exaggerate their status to get money advertised for stories on page two of the paper.

“Unfortunately the reality is many of the people we dealt with are desperate to get their hands on the money we offered. They can be extremely expansive with their claims.”

Pharo said that typically the newsroom was so busy that he paid little attention to the requests and if he gave a curt response to a request for a cash payment it was, he said, because “to be frank with you I would just be bored with it” and be thinking “please get it out of the way”.

He said email exchanges in which he agreed to pay cash for stories,was not an authorisation of a payment but a “pricing” of the “value” of a story. The value depended on where the story appeared in the paper, he explained to the jury.

The trial continues.