LONDON - The arrest of a former British police detective has added a new twist to the media ethics scandal centred on the News of the World, not least because he was reported to be among the paper's victims.
David Cook, a 52-year-old law enforcement veteran, was arrested on the same day that he offered to testify about police corruption uncovered by the scandal, a person familiar with the case said Wednesday. He demanded anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on Cook's behalf.
Cook is a central figure in one of the murkiest episodes so far brought to light by the scandal, which has already led to more than a dozen arrests, the resignations of senior newspaper executives and top police officers, and a wide-ranging inquiry into media ethics led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson.
Cook led the most recent investigation into the 1987 death of private investigator Daniel Morgan, an unsolved murder which has been blighted by police corruption. The most recent attempt to prosecute the case collapsed in March, and subsequent reporting in the Guardian newspaper has alleged corrupt links between the suspects involved and the News of the World, which allegedly spied on Cook on their behalf.
Cook is now suing the News of the World's publisher, a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News International Ltd., along with two of the tabloid's former executives.
The person familiar with the case said that Cook had applied for "core participant" status in Leveson's investigation, which is due to explore allegations of corrupt links between the press and the police. The person said that Cook had hoped to testify.
A spokeswoman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which ordered the arrest, said that the move had nothing to do with Cook's attempt to participate in the inquiry.
In a statement, the commission said that the arrest "relates to the alleged passing of unauthorized information to a journalist."
Scotland Yard, whose handling of the phone hacking investigation has been widely criticized, has cracked down hard on unauthorized leaks. In September, the Guardian revealed that one of its journalists had been called in for questioning over an alleged leak.
In August, police announced that an unidentified detective working on the investigation had been arrested on suspicion of unauthorized disclosure of information.
A spokesman for the Leveson inquiry declined comment.
