Tom Savage Of Daily Star Sunday First Non-News International Journalist To Face Corruption Charges

Daily Star Journalist Latest To Face Corruption Charges

Charges over alleged corrupt payments to public officials are being brought against a non-News International journalist for the first time.

Tom Savage, deputy news editor from the Daily Star Sunday, is accused of paying a prison officer from high security HMP Woodhill for information on a high-profile prisoner.

The Daily Star, which is part of Express Newspapers, is one of those named in the allegations

He is facing one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office for allegedly paying for the details, as is former News of the World crime editor Lucy Panton.

Prison officer Scott Chapman and his ex-partner Lynn Gaffney are facing allegations that they received thousands of pounds from a number of newspapers.

Chapman is accused of having sold the information to the News of the World, the Sun, the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror, the People, the Daily Star and the Star on Sunday between March 2010 and June 2011, receiving payments through Gaffney.

Prosecutors claim they received 13 payments totalling £9,300 from News International in respect of 11 articles published in the News of the World and the Sun; 13 payments totalling £12,800 from Express Newspapers in respect of 23 articles published in the the Daily Star and the Star on Sunday; and £13,050 in payments from Trinity Mirror newspaper group in respect of 14 articles published in the the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People.

Chapman and Gaffney are each facing four counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

A journalist from the Mirror Group has been told they will face no further action.

In a separate case, Sun journalist Chris Pharo is facing accusations that he authorised payments to public officials employed at Broadmoor secure hospital, Thames Valley, Surrey and Metropolitan Police, officers in the British Army and prison officials between January 2006 and December 2010.

Pharo, who was news editor and then head of news at the Sun, will be charged with one count of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

One journalist and three public officials are to face no further action after prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence.

Chapman, Gaffney, Panton, Savage and Pharo will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 18 July.

Later, Scotland Yard said two officers had been told that they will face no further action after they were arrested over alleged inappropriate payments.

One is a 50-year-old man who serves in the Territorial Policing command based in south London and was arrested at his home in Wimbledon, south west London on 12 February.

The second is a 51-year-old man who was arrested on 14 February at his home in Wiltshire and serves in Territorial Policing in west London.

Both officers remain suspended pending internal misconduct proceedings.

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