Sun reporter denies plotting with police officer

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/sep/26/sun-reporter-police-officer-vince-soodin

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A Sun reporter has denied plotting with a corrupt police officer when he sent a “stock” reply to a tip sent to the tabloid about a fox attack.

Vince Soodin is on trial at the Old Bailey accused of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office by paying Sussex police sergeant James Bowes £500 for story tips.

Giving evidence in his defence, Soodin told jurors how he was sifting through hundreds of emails sent to the tabloid’s news desk when he came across one from the officer.

The message caught his eye for a story in the “public interest” because it about a fox biting a three-year-old boy at a school in Brighton.

He said: “Immediately I thought it might be a newsworthy story of public interest because in June twin girls had been attacked by a fox in Hackney and it was a massive story covered by all the newspapers.

“A fox attacking a child – I think mums and dads across the country would be interested in that.”

In his email of 19 June 2010, the officer, who called himself Mike, said he wanted to remain anonymous and asked for money in return for the information.

Defence lawyer William Harbage QC asked: “The fact there was a reference to police and loss of job, what was your reaction to that? Did it ring any alarm bells?

Soodin replied: “Not at the time. The story was public interest. I was more interested in the information.”

He said his email response a couple of hours later to say the newspaper was “happy to pay for the story” was a pre-prepared “stock response” he often used.

Mr Harbage said: “Had you personally done anything at all to encourage the person Mike who we now know is James Bowes to email the Sun with that information?”

The defendant replied: “No, not at all. He has emailed in to the Sun news desk not to me. ”

The lawyer went on: “Had there been any agreement between you to divulge confidential information?” Soodin said: “No, not at all.”

Earlier, Soodin said he had never been told during his training that paying a public official was against the law.

And “every single story” published by the Sun was checked by lawyers first, he said.

Mr Harbage said: “Did you realised you could be breaking the law if you were receiving information from a public official?”

He replied: “No, not at all.”

Soodin said he considered himself a junior reporter at the Sun at the time of the alleged offence in 2010.

Since he was charged in 2013, he has been suspended from his job, he said: “It has been one of the hardest things. I had been enjoying a job and working helps deal with this ordeal.”

He told jurors he was born in Lewisham, south London, to Mauritian parents who emigrated to Britain in the 1960s.

After graduating from Bristol University, he trained to be a reporter and cut his teeth at the Bucks Free Press, before becoming a London court reporter, eventually joining the Sun in 2006.

Bowes has previously admitted misconduct in a public office but Soodin, of Greenwich, south east London, denies any wrongdoing.