A journalist from Britain's best-selling The Sun newspaper, reportedly its royal editor, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of illegally paying public officials, police said. The 36-year-old journalist was held in a dawn swoop at his home in Kent, southern England, while a 42-year-old male former armed forces member and a 38-year-old woman were arrested at their home in Lancashire, north-west England.
"A Sun journalist has been arrested," said a spokeswoman for News International, the British newspaper publishing arm of media baron Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. British media named him as the daily tabloid's royal editor Duncan Larcombe. The journalist was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office.
The former serviceman was detained on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and the woman on suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office. The addresses of those held were being searched. A total of 26 people have now been arrested since last July as part of the probe into alleged inappropriate payments to public officials, which is linked to Scotland Yard's continuing phone-hacking investigation.