Detective Chief Inspector who tried to sell hacking probe information to News of the World is jailed but judge reduces sentence because she is adopting a child

• April Casburn sentenced to 15 months for misconduct in public office
• Judge rejects argument she was blowing whistle on hacking investigation
  

By HUGO GYE

PUBLISHED: 10:47 GMT, 1 February 2013 | UPDATED: 12:39 GMT, 1 February 2013

A senior counter-terrorism detective was today jailed for 15 months as part of the investigation into phone hacking and police corruption - but the judge agreed to shorten her sentence because she is adopting a child.

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn was sentenced at the Old Bailey for misconduct in public office after being found guilty of offering to sell information to the News of the World.

Mr Justice Fulford told her it was 'a corrupt attempt to make money out of sensitive and potentially very damaging information'.

He added that Casburn, 53, would have faced a sentence of three years if she were not currently in the process of adopting a child.

The defendant's lawyer had pleaded for a non-custodial sentence, on the grounds that it would inflict 'lifelong damage' on the child to be separated from its adopted mother.

She had argued that her actions were motivated by whistle-blowing over the amount of resources dedicated to the phone-hacking investigation.

But the judge rejected this claim, adding: 'If the News of the World had accepted her offer, it's clear, in my view, that Ms Casburn would have taken the money and, as a result, she posed a significant threat to the integrity of this important police investigation.'

He went on: 'Activity of this kind is deeply damaging to the administration of criminal justice in this country. It corrodes the public's faith in the police force, it can lead to the acquittal or the failure by the authorities to prosecute individuals who have committed offences whether they are serious or otherwise.

'We are entitled to expect the very highest standards of probity from our police officers, particularly those at a senior level.

'It is, in my judgment, a very serious matter indeed when men or women who have all the benefits, privileges and responsibilities of public office use their position for corrupt purposes.'

FULL STORY: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2271798/Detective-Chief-Ins...