Phone-hacking probe: Ex-editor of NOTW arrested

The police probing the phone-hacking issue on Tuesday arrested Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the now defunct News of the World tabloid of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, marking the 11th arrest in the case.

Kuttner, 70, apparently did not know he was going to be taken into custody when he arrived by appointment with his solicitor at a police station in London at 11 am on Tuesday to answer questions about the phone-hacking scandal. As per normal practice, Scotland Yard has not released the name of the arrested person, but according to Sky News and The Guardian, he is Stuart Kuttner, who was a leading figure in the News of the World until 2009.

Kuttner was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption. Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World, was also arrested under the same charges.

Kuttner resigned as the managing editor in 2009, after playing a leading role in the tabloid's 'Sarah's Law' campaign, which sought to change the law so parents can be told when registered sex offenders move into their area. He was previously news editor at the London Evening Standard.

Police from both Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan police investigation into phone-hacking, and Elveden, the investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police, were reported to have been involved in the arrest. The development is the latest in a scandal that has already caused the closure of the 168-year-old News of the World, and the resignation of two top police officers.

Others arrested and bailed included ex-editor Andy Coulson, ex-assistant editor Ian Edmondson, ex-chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, journalists James Weatherup and Terenia Taras, an unnamed 63-year-old man, and ex-royal editor Clive Goodman.