Phone hacking: Sun journalist arrested over police payments

Metropolitan police detectives investigating corrupt payments to police by the media have arrested a senior reporter at the Sun, marking the first arrest of someone from the paper in connection with the phone-hacking scandal..

Jamie Pyatt, the tabloid's Thames Valley district correspondent, was arrested at 10.30am today "on suspicion of corruption allegations in contravention of Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906" and taken to a south west London police station for questioning.

News International confirmed that the 48-year-old arrested is a current employee but refused to confirm any information about his identity.

A statement from News International said the publisher is "co-operating fully with the Metropolitan police is its various investigations."

This morning's arrest is the sixth by the Operation Elveden team, responsible for investigating corrupt payments to police officers. The five previous arrests include three made in conjunction with Operation Weeting, which is investigating phone hacking.

Previous joint arrests by the two teams include former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks and former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

A total of 16 people have been arrested by both teams in connection with the phone-hacking scandal.

The Met police confirmed yesterday that the number of possible victims of phone hacking is almost 5,800.

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