Four senior Staff from the Sun and one Police Officer arrested.

Apparently News International carried out its own investigation in the wake of the NOTW scandal and passed their information on to the Police



four current and former senior staff at The Sun and the serving policeman
arrested as part of the investigation into payments made to police officers,
have been bailed pending further investigations.


Three of the group were arrested following early-morning raids on their
homes. The fourth attended a police station after police went to the wrong
house.

The police officer, a 29-year-old member of the Territorial Policing command,
was detained at the station in central London where he works.

He was arrested on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and
conspiracy in relation to the alleged offences.

The other four men were quizzed at police stations in London and Essex on
suspicion of corruption, aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office and
conspiracy.


Arrested: Graham Dudman, former managing editor at The
Sun



According to Sky sources, they are The Sun's head of news Chris Pharo, 42,
crime editor Mike Sullivan, 48, former managing editor Graham Dudman, 48, and
Fergus Shanahan, 56, a former deputy editor.

All of the suspects were arrested by officers working on Operation Elveden,
which is running alongside the Operation Weeting phone-hacking inquiry.

Police also searched their home addresses and the offices of News
International in Wapping, East London.

News International was the publisher of the News Of The World (NOTW), which was shut down after a series of
phone-hacking revelations.

It also publishes The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

The arrests followed information given to police by the Management and
Standards Committee of News Corporation, News International's parent
company.


News International's offices in Wapping have been searched
by police


Sky's crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "The information that
police are working on, largely, has been supplied by the company itself who have
done a trawl of staff emails, expenses sheets, expenses claims made by
journalists."

Scotland Yard said the information related to suspected payments to police
officers and was "not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources
in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately".

News Corporation confirmed the four arrests in a statement and stressed its
cooperation with police.

It said: "News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable
news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated.

"It commissioned the Management and Standards Committee (MSC) to undertake a
review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively
co-operate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant
information arose at those titles.

"As a result of that review, which is ongoing, the MSC provided information
to the Elveden investigation which led to today's arrests."

The information that police are working on, largely, has been supplied by the
company itself who have done a trawl of staff emails, expenses sheets, expenses
claims made by journalists.

Martin Brunt, Sky's crime
correspondent


The statement added: "News Corporation will continue to give its total
support to the continued work of the MSC and to ensure that legitimate
journalism is vigorously pursued in both the public interest and in full
compliance with the law."

Operation Elveden was launched after police were handed
documents suggesting News International journalists had made illegal payments to
officers.

Others questioned as part of the inquiry include former News International
chief executive Rebekah Brooks, ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy
Coulson and former NOTW managing editor Stuart Kuttner.

The paper's one-time royal editor Clive Goodman, former NOTW crime editor
Lucy Panton and Sun district editor Jamie Pyatt have also been quizzed.

Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson are both former editors of the NOTW, which was
closed in July at the height of the hacking scandal after it emerged murdered
teenager Milly Dowler's phone had been targeted.

The latest arrests bring the number of people questioned in the Elveden
investigation to 14.