Police officer sold inaccurate story to Sun, court hears
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Version 0 of 1. A Heathrow-based police officer sold information to the Sun for an inaccurate front-page story about a woman being ogled in an x-ray scanner, a court has heard. The tabloid’s crime reporter, Anthony France, 41, is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of cultivating a corrupt relationship with PC Timothy Edwards over four years. While working at the airport in SO15 counter terrorism command, Edwards, 49, allegedly sold 38 stories and titbits of information to the journalist in exchange for more than £22,000. France, from Watford, denies the charge of aiding and abetting Edwards to commit misconduct in a public office between March 2008 and July 2011. Opening the trial, prosecutor Zoe Johnson QC told jurors to “brace” themselves before reading out salacious headlines on stories which allegedly came from France’s police source. In March 2010, France wrote a front-page story headlined “Heathrow sex scandal ... Scanner glamour ding dong”. Edwards allegedly picked up £1,200 for the story about a member of airport staff abusing his access to new bodyscanners to ogle a female colleague’s breasts. The court heard that Edwards read a crime report made by the victim at Heathrow police station. When one of the journalist’s colleagues later called on the victim at home, she was deeply distressed, Johnson said. Jurors were told that the story turned out to be inaccurate and the Sun later printed an apology, accepting it was an invasion of the victim’s privacy. France’s contact with Edwards dated back to 2008 when a story was published under the headline “Sexual Heeling – BA man quits over squelchy stilettos fetish”. He reported that a named BA engineer had been caught on secret cameras in a Heathrow airport building wearing a bodice and parading up a makeshift catwalk in high-heeled shoes. Edwards had arrested him the year before over an allegation of damaging polystyrene ceiling tiles being used as the catwalk but the employee was never charged, the court heard. Months later, the officer looked up the details on the police computer to sell the information to France for £850, Johnson said. The officer went on to allegedly sell France information for a story about a suspect arrested for stealing from sick children in various London hospitals. In April 2009, the reporter allegedly requested his source be paid for a story about a drunken model flying into a rage after “catching her boyfriend romping with a woman next to him”. The story headlined “Cover girl rages as fella romps on jet; sex fury at 30,000 feet” included a quote from a police source saying: “They certainly put the bang into Bangalore.” The same month, France wrote about a pilot being stopped and breathalysed as he was about to fly an Air Canada Airbus to Calgary. Johnson said the pilot was never charged because when the blood test result came back he was not over the limit – but by this time his name had already been “splashed all over the paper”. Edwards seriously abused his power by accessing the police database and crime reports to pass on personal details of victims as well as perpetrators, the prosecutor said. She told jurors: “A liberal democracy such as ours relies on the police not abusing their power. Just ask yourselves, would you expect a police constable to profit from this misuse of power? If you were a victim of crime would you expect a police officer to sell your name and address to the Sun?” The trial continues. |