Joe Utichi contributes to Deadline’s UK coverage
The Metropolitan Police officer charged for trying to sell information about the force’s phone-hacking investigation has been sentenced to 15 months in prison. Earlier this month, April Casburn became the first person found guilty under Operation Elveden – the probe into inappropriate payments to police as a result of the News Of The World phone-hacking scandal – and her sentence represents the first jail time handed down. The sentencing judge said Casburn’s actions, when she phoned News Of The World offering to sell information about the phone-hacking investigation, were a “corrupt attempt to make money.” Her defense claimed she had been frustrated in her capacity as a counter-terrorism officer when resources were diverted to phone hacking and had made “a mad telephone call.” The judge said Casburn’s sentence would have been three years had she not been in the process of adopting a child. Her actions were “a truly dire step for a police officer to take,” he said.