Police in Murdoch bribery scandal

A network of corrupt police officers and public officials regularly took cash bribes from Rupert Murdoch's News International, an inquiry heard today.

Scotland Yard's chief investigator of phone hacking revealed that a ring of public servants received payments of up to £80,000 in return for information.

Journalists at The Sun allegedly handed out cash to police officers, prison officers and officials in health and government offices.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers said that payments were not for an "odd drink or a meal" but were "regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists".

In a dramatic day at the Leveson inquiry, fresh revelations included:

Former Met officer Brian Paddick claimed that Scotland Yard leaked highly sensitive information on witness protection programmes to a private investigator working
for the News of the World.

Scotland Yard was accused of "tipping off" the former editor of The Sun, Rebekah Brooks, about its phone hacking investigation in 2006.

Giving evidence to Lord Justice Leveson this morning Ms Akers said there appeared to be a "culture" at The Sun of illegal payments to officials but she admitted it was difficult to identify the officials involved.

She added that evidence suggested that one individual received £80,000 in cash over several years while a Sun journalist - who has been arrested - received more than £150,000 in cash to pay his sources, a number of whom were said to be public officials, including people working in the military.

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corporation, said: "As I've made very clear, we have vowed to do everything we can to get to the bottom of prior wrongdoings in order to set us on the right path for the future. That process is well under way.

"The practices Sue Akers described at the Leveson inquiry are ones of the past, and no longer exist at The Sun. We have already emerged a stronger company." Lord Justice Leveson was told that police were investigating "possible offences" of corruption, misconduct in public office and conspiracy.

Ms Akers said a number of Sun employees and police officers - plus a member of the Ministry of Defence and a member of the armed forces - had been arrested and she gave an update on the investigation.

A total of 10 Sun journalists had now been arrested, including senior editors at the paper and respected reporters. All have since released on police bail.

Ms Akers suggested that journalists appeared to have been "well aware" that "what they were doing was unlawful".

She added that she recognised that there may be issues of "public interest" and police were consulting the Crown Prosecution service.

Ms Akers said police had managed to link payments to stories that had appeared in the paper and most of them were what she described as "salacious gossip," adding: "Not what I would describe as being remotely in the public interest."

Ms Akers said because of the nature of the investigation it was "easier" to identify journalists than public officials.

But she said police hoped that more investigations would reveal the identities of the officials. The inquiry continues.