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| Sun reporter Clodagh Hartley cleared over Budget leak | Sun reporter Clodagh Hartley cleared over Budget leak |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A former Sun journalist has been cleared of paying a press officer for information including details of Alistair Darling's 2010 Budget. | |
| Ex-Whitehall editor Clodagh Hartley was accused of paying Jonathan Hall, from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, some £17,000 for tip-offs over three years. | |
| Ms Hartley, 40, thanked the Old Bailey jury after being cleared of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. | |
| Mr Hall's girlfriend Marta Bukarewicz, 45, was cleared of the same offence. | |
| The Old Bailey had been told Mr Hall gave the journalist information that went into a double-page spread about Alistair Darling's budget before he stood up to deliver it. | |
| A paper trail discovered he was given £750 for the story. | |
| Prosecutors also said Mr Hall was paid £500 for another story about celebrities being paid to publicise a government website. | |
| But Alexandra Healy QC, defending, said it would be "quite wrong" to convict Ms Hartley of a plot to commit a criminal act, arguing: "She was doing her job. She did it well. She did what was asked of her and everybody knew what she was doing." | |
| After she was found not guilty, Ms Hartley burst into tears and mouthed "thank you" to the jury before leaving the dock. |