Rotherham pair held in phone hacking corruption probe

TWO people were arrested in Rotherham this morning by officers investigating inappropriate payments to police.

A 34-year-old woman, who is a former Ministry of Defence employee, was arrested at her Rotherham home on suspicion of misconduct in a public office.

A 31-year-old man, a serving member of the armed forces, was picked up at the same address on suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office.

They were arrested at 6am as part of the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Elveden and taken to a local police station.

Fifty-two people have now been arrested as part of the operation, which is investigating inappropriate payments to public officials and is connected with the phone-hacking inquiry, Operation Weeting.

Information from News Corporation’s management standards committee resulted in this morning’s arrests, police said.

Scotland Yard said the arrests were the result of information provided by News Corporation's management standards committee, which was set up in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.