In January 2011 the Met Police launched what is now reckoned to have become the biggest UK criminal investigation ever, into journalists.
It began with the targeting of voicemail interception at the News of the World and expanded to look at payments to public officials and allegations of computer-hacking.
Up to the end of September 2014 the total cost to the Met Police was £33.5m. With legal fees from trials, the total cost to the state of these investigations is far higher.
At least 64 journalists have been arrested and/or charged so far (some journalists have been charged without being arrested).
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The £33.5m has so far resulted in four journalists being sent to prison (all spending less than a year inside). There have been ten convictions in total: three guilty verdicts after a trial, and seven guilty pleas.
Of the 17 journalists who have faced trial:
- Seven have been found not guilty
- Three have been found guilty
- Seven face a retrial after juries failed to agree a verdict.
Operation Weeting (phone-hacking), cost: £19.2m
Weeting has been far the most successful of the three probes securing eight convictions.
These comprised one guilty verdict at trial (former News of the World editor Andy Coulson) and seven guilty pleas.
Weeting is the only investigation in which judges have considered the crimes serious enough to send journalists to prison: Andy Coulson, Neville Thurlbeck, Greg Miskiw and Ian Edmondson (all formerly of the News of the World).
Operation Elveden (payments to public officials), cost: £11.3m
Of the 34 journalists arrested and/or charged under Operation Elveden there have so far been only two convictions: a former News of the World journalist who can’t yet be named who was found guilty by a jury and former News of the World and Sunday Mirror journalist Dan Evans who admitted the offence.
Five journalists have been found not guilty by a jury and seven face retrials after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
Operation Tuleta (computer-hacking), cost: £3m
Operation Tuleta has so far secured one caution for computer-hacking and one conviction for handling a stolen mobile phone (Nick Parker of The Sun, who was given a suspended sentence).
The 64 UK journalists arrested and/or charged by police since April 2011
*means they were not arrested, date is when they were charged
** At Kingston Crown Court, Jamie Pyatt, Chris Pharo, Graham Dudman and Ben O'Driscoll were each found not-guilty on some counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office but all face a retrial after the jury failed to reach verdicts on different counts of the same charge.
CPCJ = conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
| Name | Title | Offence | First arrested | Charged | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neville Thurlbeck | NoW | Hacking | 05/04/2011 | Yes | Guilty plea |
| Ian Edmondson | NoW | Hacking, payments | 05/04/2011 | Yes | Guilty plea (hacking) |
| James Weatherup | NoW | Hacking | 14/04/2011 | Yes | Guilty plea |
| Tenia Taras | Freelance | Hacking | 27/06/2011 | No | Cleared |
| Laura Elston | PA | Hacking | 27/06/2011 | No | Cleared |
| Andy Coulson | NoW | Hacking, payments, perjury | 08/07/2011 | Yes | Guilty (hacking) |
| Clive Goodman | NoW | Payments | 08/07/2011 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Neil Wallis | NoW | Hacking | 14/07/2011 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Rebekah Brooks | NoW, Sun | Hacking, payments, CPCJ | 17/07/2011 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| Stuart Kuttner | NoW | Hacking | 02/08/2011 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| Greg Miskiw | NoW | Hacking | 10/08/2011 | Yes | Guilty plea |
| James Desborough | NoW | Hacking | 18/08/2011 | No | Cleared |
| Dan Evans | NoW, Mirror | Hacking, payments, CPCJ | 19/08/2011 | Yes | Guilty plea (all three) |
| Ross Hall | NoW | Hacking | 02/09/2011 | No | Cleared |
| Raoul Simons | NoW | Hacking | 07/09/2011 | No | Cleared |
| Jamie Pyatt | The Sun | Payments | 04/11/2011 | Yes | Awaiting trial** |
| Bethany Usher | NoW | Hacking | 30/11/2011 | No | Cleared |
| A journalist | NoW | Payments | 15/12/2011 | Yes | Guilty verdict |
| Graham Dudman | The Sun | Payments | 28/01/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial** |
| Chris Pharo | The Sun | Payments | 28/01/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial** |
| Mike Sullivan | The Sun | Payments | 28/01/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Fergus Shanahan | The Sun | Payments | 28/01/2012 | Yes | On trial |
| John Sturgis | The Sun | Payments | 11/02/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Geoff Webster | The Sun | Payments | 11/02/2012 | Yes | On trial |
| John Kay | The Sun | Payments | 11/02/2012 | Yes | On trial |
| Nick Parker | The Sun | Payments, handling stolen phone | 11/02/2012 | Yes | Guilty verdict (handling) |
| Virginia Wheeler | The Sun | Payments | 01/03/2012 | Yes | Charges dropped health grounds |
| Duncan Larcombe | The Sun | Payments | 19/04/2012 | Yes | On trial |
| Clodargh Hartley | The Sun | Payments | 25/05/2012 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| Neil Millard | The Sun | Payments | 14/06/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Greig Box-Turnbull | Daily Mirror | Payments | 04/07/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Justin Penrose | Sunday Mirror | Payments | 11/07/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Tom Savage | Daily Star Sunday | Payments | 11/07/2012 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| Rhodri Phillips | The Sun | Computer hacking | 19/07/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Man, 37 | The Sun | Handling stolen phone | 31/07/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Ben Ashford | The Sun | Handling stolen phone | 07/08/2012 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| Vince Soodin | The Sun | Payments | 08/08/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Douglas Wright | NoW | Hacking, perjury | 17/08/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Patrick Foster | The Times | Computer hacking | 29/08/2012 | No | Cautioned |
| Bob Bird | NoW | CPCJ | 29/08/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Alex Marunchak | NoW | Computer hacking | 02/09/2012 | No | On bail |
| Tom Wells | The Sun | Payments | 19/09/2012 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| John Coles | The Sun | Payments | 19/09/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Chris Pollard | The Sun | Handling stolen phone | 20/09/2012 | No | Cleared |
| Woman, 38 | Payments | 06/12/2012 | No | Cleared | |
| Anthony France | The Sun | Payments | 17/01/2013 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Matt Nixson | NoW | Hacking | 13/02/2013 | No | Cleared |
| Rav Singh | NoW | Hacking | 13/02/2013 | No | Cleared |
| Rachel Richardson | NoW | Hacking | 13/02/2013 | No | Cleared |
| Jane Atkinson | NoW | Hacking | 13/02/2013 | No | Cleared |
| Polly Graham | NoW | Hacking | 13/02/2013 | No | Cleared |
| Jules Stenson | NoW | Hacking | 13/02/2013 | Yes | Guilty plea |
| James Scott | Sunday People | Hacking | 14/03/2013 | No | On bail |
| Tina Weaver | Sunday Mirror | Hacking | 14/03/2013 | No | On bail |
| Mark Thomas | Sunday People | Hacking | 14/03/2013 | No | On bail |
| Nick Buckley | Sunday People | Hacking | 14/03/2013 | No | On bail |
| John Troup* | The Sun | Payments | 21/05/2013 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| John Edwards | The Sun | Payments | 21/06/2013 | Yes | Not guilty verdict |
| Ben O'Driscoll* | The Sun | Payments | 12/09/2013 | Yes | Awaiting trial** |
| Man, 43 | Freelance | Payments | 13/09/2013 | No | Cleared |
| Graham Brough* | Daily Mirror | Payments | 26/02/2014 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Brandon Malinsky* | The Sun | Payments | 26/02/2014 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Ryan Sabey* | NoW | Payments | 15/08/2014 | Yes | Awaiting trial |
| Graham Johnson* | Sunday Mirror | Hacking | 18/10/2014 | Yes | Guilty plea |
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