Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn who works in specialist operations at the Metropolitan Police has been accused of contacting the News of the World on the 11th September 2010 and providing them with information.
The Crown Prosecution Service has examined a file sent to them by officers investigating alleged inappropriate payments by journalists to police and other public servants. Alison Levitt QC, the principal legal adviser to the Director of Public Prosecutions said in a statement that Casburn had "wilfully misconducted herself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in that office".
The statement from the DPP said "We have concluded, having carefully considered the file of evidence that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that it is in the public interest to charge DCI Casburn with misconduct in public office. The particulars are that on the 11th September 2010 April Casburn, being a public officer and acting as such without reasonable excuse or justification, wilfully misconducted herself to such a degree as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in that office. This charge relates to an allegation that DCI Casburn contacted the News of the World newspaper and offered to provide information".
The officer is due to appear atWestminsterMagistrates Courton the 1st October 2012.
It will be a busy week next week for those involved in the investigations into phone hacking as eight people, including Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World, and David Cameron's former director of communications at 10 Downing Street are appearing in court on Wednesday for a hearing having been charged in July with conspiracy to intercept voicemails. A further seven individuals including Rebekah Brooks, the former news international chief executive, will appear at the same court on Wednesday for a plea and case management hearing relating to charges that they conspired to pervert the course of justice which arose from Operation Weeting and which alleges that they concealed information from police working as part of that operation.
A large number of individuals, many of whom are journalists from the former News of the World and from the Sun, are believed to still be on police bail awaiting the conclusion of the investigations into their cases.
