The former Times journalist Patrick Foster has been arrested by Metropolitan police detectives investigating computer hacking. He was arrested at his home early this morning. The Metropolitan Police said the arrest related to suspected offences under the Computer Misuse Act and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Scotland Yard added that the arrest is related to the "identification of a previously anonymous blogger". The blogger is believed to be Richard Horton, a police constable who was unmasked by the Times as the man behind the NightJack blog. Richard Horton's blog, won the prestigious Orwell prize for its descriptions of a PC's life, was then closed down and he was reprimanded by his police superiors.
I have written previously about NightJack here. Click Me.
I have written previously about NightJack here. Click Me.
The NightJack affair resurfaced in February at the Leveson inquiry into press ethics. James Harding, the editor of the Times, and the paper's former legal manager, Alastair Brett, gave evidence to the inquiry over the identification of Horton as NightJack. Richard Horton is now suing the publisher of the Times, News International subsidiary Times Newspapers, for breach of confidence, misuse of private information and deceit. The Lancashire detective's claims all arise from the alleged unlawful accessing of his email account in May 2009.
Later....
Later....
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading you blog for sometime and would like to comment on the recent change of format, to only show the first couple of paragraphs with a link to the rest of the article. I sure you have a reason for doing this, but from a readers point of view (well mine at least) I find it a bit disruptive, especially if I've not read the blog for a couple of days. Instead of just scrolling down to the last article I've read and then reading back to the latest one I continually have to click and back tab to read the blog.
I hope you don't mind this slight criticism of what I think is an excellent blog, but I do find it irritating and have been meaning to write to you for a week or so about it.
John
PS I'm not sure what your policy is about publishing comments, but as this is not related to the article (excellent by the way, I read the 'Police Inspector' blog now, not as good as 'NightJack', but occasionally insightful) do not feel obliged to publish it.