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| Sun reporter Anthony France sentenced over misconduct | Sun reporter Anthony France sentenced over misconduct |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A Sun reporter has been given an 18-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of receiving tip-offs from an anti-terrorism officer. | A Sun reporter has been given an 18-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of receiving tip-offs from an anti-terrorism officer. |
| Anthony France, 41, from Watford, was found guilty of aiding and abetting PC Timothy Edwards to commit misconduct. | |
| He cultivated a "corrupt relationship" with the Heathrow Airport officer over four years, London's Old Bailey heard. | |
| France is the first Sun journalist to be convicted as part of a probe into alleged illegal payments to officials. | |
| The trial heard how PC Edwards had sold 38 stories and tip-offs to France between March 2008 and July 2011 in exchange for more than £22,000. | |
| Judge Timothy Pontius sentenced the reporter to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, and to 200 hours of community service. | |
| He described him as a journalist of "hitherto unblemished character" who was "essentially a decent man of solid integrity". | |
| Through the books | |
| BBC home affairs correspondent June Kelly said Judge Pontius had acknowledged that France followed established procedures at the Sun in the manner of the payments. | |
| The payments had gone through the newspaper's accounts, our correspondent added. | |
| She said a number of journalists from the Sun had been in court to support France during the hearing. | |
| France, a crime reporter, had been prosecuted under Operation Elveden - the Metropolitan Police investigation into alleged inappropriate payments to police and public officials. | |
| His conviction comes after charges against nine journalists accused of making illegal payments to officials were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service last month. | |
| However, when it announced the decision, the CPS said it was continuing the prosecutions of France, and two other Sun journalists in a separate case. |