Phone hacking: Former NoW reporter Bethany Usher arrested

Former News of the World reporter Bethany Usher has been arrested in Northumbria in connection with phone hacking.

Usher, who is 31, is currently a journalism lecturer at Teeside University.

According to a statement from the Metropolitan police, the woman was arrested at 6:35am "on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages, contrary to Section1 (1) Criminal Law Act 1977" and is now in custody at a Northumbria police station.

Teeside University has declined to comment on the arrest.

Usher began her career as a trainee on the Sunderland Echo and later worked for the People as well as the News of the World. According to her Teeside University profile she has won four journalism awards, including Young Journalist of the Year in 2003.

She was arrested and questioned by police in 2006 on suspicion of providing false information after apparently applying for a job at Buckingham Palace.

News of the World publisher News International said at the time that Usher was "engaged in the legitimate journalistic exercise" of investigating security at the palace on behalf of the tabloid. She was never charged.

Her arrest is the 17th by the Met's phone hacking investigation, Operation Weeting, although detectives are yet to charge anybody.

Weeting is one of three Met police operations connected to the phone hacking scandal, with Operations Elveden and Tuleta investigating corrupt police payments and computer hacking respectively.

Operation Elveden has made six arrests, three of those joint arrests with Weeting, and Tuleta made its first arrest last week when a 52-year-old man was taken into custody at Thames Valley police station.

Previous arrests by Operation Weeting include former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson.

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