Sun journalist arrested in phone hacking probe

THE phone hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp threatened to spread to other titles yesterday, as sources said a journalist at the Sun had been arrested over allegations of police bribery.

Police investigating events at the News of the World said they had arrested a 48-year-old in connection with payments made to police.

A spokesman for News Corp’s British newspaper arm, News International, said an employee had been arrested. Two company sources identified the man as Sun reporter Jamie Pyatt.

The Sun, Britain’s largest circulation daily newspaper, is the sister paper to the News of the World, which News Corp closed at the height of the storm in July.

News of the arrest will come as a bitter blow to the group, which consistently argued that the illegal practices of snooping on people’s phone messages and paying off the police were restricted to the News of the World.

The scandal has infuriated News Corp shareholders, forced the resignations of top British police officers and embarrassed Prime Minister David Cameron, who had hired the former editor of the News of the World as his media advisor.

The revelations have led to a string of police inquiries and civil court cases.

Yesterday a police spokesman said they believed the number of people targeted was almost 5,800 — 2,000 more than originally thought. The full scale of the problem means News Corp is likely to face a much larger bill for compensation than anticipated.