A model has accepted undisclosed privacy damages from the Metropolitan Police over the sale of information about her by an officer to The Sun. (Stock picture of police officers outside former Sun offices)
Sarah Hannon only became aware four years later – in April 2013, when she was notified by those working for the Operation Elveden investigation into payments to public officials – of the precise circumstances of how the article in the newspaper came to be published, solicitor Nicola McCann told Mr Justice Mann at London's High Court.
McCann said Hannon was shocked and distressed to learn that a police officer could behave in this way and felt very let down and humiliated by the betrayal.
She sued and the Metropolitan Police admitted that her private information was wrongly disclosed to a journalist and that this constituted a breach of confidence, a misuse of private information and a breach of her right to respect for privacy and family life under Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.
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McCann said that the Metropolitan Police had agreed to pay damages and a contribution to Hannon's legal costs.
Hannon, who has had a successful career all over the world for more than 20 years, had recently settled her claim against The Sun's publisher over the publication and News Group Newspapers (NGN) had agreed to pay her damages and contribute to her costs, McCann told the court.
Jacob Dean, counsel for the Metropolitan Police, said it was accepted there was a serious misuse of Hannon's private information, which should never have happened, and offered sincere apologies for the distress and humiliation Hannon had suffered.
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