Acquittal of four senior Sun journalists seen as blow to CPS
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/20/acquittal-four-senior-sun-journalists-blow-cps Version 0 of 1. The acquittal of four senior Sun journalists in dramatic scenes at the Old Bailey on Friday is being seen as a blow to the Crown Prosecution Service, which has been accused by one Tory MP of bringing “lunatic” charges against reporters. The paper’s chief reporter, John Kay, its deputy editor, Geoff Webster, and its executive editor, Fergus Shanahan, were cleared of conspiring with a Ministry of Defence official on a series of leaks in an eight-year period over failures and weaknesses in the army including bullying, sexual harassment and casualties. Bettina Jordan-Barber, a strategist at the MoD, was sentenced to 12 months in jail for misconduct in public office over the £100,000 she received from the Sun for tipoffs and assistance, it can now be reported. A fourth journalist, the paper’s royal editor, Duncan Larcombe, was cleared of a slightly different charge to his colleagues – aiding and abetting John Hardy, a Sandhurst instructor who landed £23,700 for leaks about Prince Harry, Prince William and others who attended the military academy. The jury also found Hardy not guilty of misconduct in public office and cleared his wife of aiding and abetting him when she allowed her bank account to be used to funnel some of the cash payments. Prosecutor Michael Parroy, QC, had argued that the journalists had a “thoroughly corrupt” relationship with public officials and that £100,000 was not a “trifling figure”. But the jury sided with Kay and Larcombe who said they believed all the stories they published as a result of their conversations were in the public interest. They included revelations about suicides at Deepcut barracks and the resignation of Colonel Bob Seddon, the former head of the army’s bomb disposal unit, over lack of experienced personnel in Afghanistan. Seddon was so furious with Jordan-Barber that he showed up to her sentencing. “I’m staggered that the Sun newspaper ran a covert intelligence source, undetected, at the heart of the British defence establishment for eight years,” he said. He told the Guardian he had been treated with “contempt and disdain” by his bosses because he had been blamed for leaking his retirement plans to the paper. The acquittal of four senior Sun journalists may have turned on a point of law that even the judge in the case conceded was extremely difficult for lawyers to convey to the jury. During legal exchanges after a jury question, there was a tense argument on how serious misconduct had to be before it would cross the line from a disciplinary matter into criminality. “This is a lunatic offence, it’s been taken too far,” Geoffrey Cox, the Tory MP and QC told the Guardian. He said the series of trials flowing from Operation Elveden, the Metropolitan police investigation into newspapers, was already having a “chilling effect” on journalism. “We want whistleblowers, whether they get paid or not,” he said, pointing to the Daily Telegraph’s payment of £150,000 for a leak of MPs’ expenses. Cox defended Webster during the three-month trial and repeatedly clashed with the judge during legal argument. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, called on the CPS to review future cases against journalists. It has spent £11.3m on the Elveden investigation and needed to “produce the goods” to justify that. “The CPS needs to look back at the way at which it has conducted these cases and establish certain principles as to how it intends to proceed in the future,” he said. Kay described the verdicts as a great relief. “It has been three years of absolute hell wondering and wondering what was going to happen.” Colleagues had feared for his health when he was arrested three years ago. “The whole charge was ridiculous. It was a matter that should be dealt with in disciplinary proceedings, not a court of law,” he said. Larcombe said he could “not celebrate being cleared while this witch-hunt against Sun journalists continues”. He said he was full of rage against the Met and CPS and it would take him years to recover from the ordeal. Ten tabloid journalists are still on trial or face trial for similar offences. So far just three have been convicted: the former News of the World journalists Dan Evans and Ryan Sabey, who was found guilty in February, and a third journalist who worked at the Sunday tabloid who cannot be named for legal reasons. |