Crown Prosecution Service considers News of the World journalist retrial
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Version 0 of 1. A crunch meeting at the Crown Prosecution Service is taking place on Monday to decide whether to retry a journalist over leaks from a public official. The former News of the World journalist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had their conviction quashed on Friday by the Lord Chief Justice in the court of appeal, and has already served most of their sentence. The CPS has been given until 4pm on Tuesday to tell the court of appeal whether it will seek a retrial. It is understood a high-level meeting is scheduled for late Monday. Along with the journalist, they will also be considering whether to go for a retrial of two co-defendants who also had their convictions quashed on Friday. The first, a prison officer, was three months into a three-and-a-half -year sentence and would have been released after his conviction was overturned. The second, a friend of the prison officer, was sentenced to 30 weeks in prison and was released last Wednesday. The court of appeal decision was a major setback for the CPS which has brought 24 journalists to trial so far over cash for leaks and tips from public officials following the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Elveden inquiry. A further 10 journalists are awaiting trial or retrial on similar charges. In a statement on Friday, the CPS said the judgment “does not call into question the prosecution of the cases they considered”, but it noted that the Lord Chief Justice “acknowledged this is an extremely difficult, and rarely visited, area of the law”. It said it would “consider the contents, and its implications, very carefully”. |