Arrest of Patrick Foster understood to be related to unmasking of NightJack blogger by the Times in 2009

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The former Times journalist Patrick Foster has been arrested by Metropolitan police detectives investigating computer hacking.

Foster was arrested at his home address in north London early on Wednesday morning. The Met said the arrest related to suspected offences under the Computer Misuse Act and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Scotland Yard added that the arrest related to the "identification of a previously anonymous blogger in 2009". The blogger is understood to be Richard Horton, a police constable who was unmasked by the Times as the man behind the NightJack blog in 2009.

The arrested individual was being questioned at a north London police station on Wednesday morning. He was later released on bail to a date in late November, Scotland Yard said.

Wednesday's arrest is the first by Scotland Yard's Operation Tuleta investigation into computer hacking that relates specifically to the NightJack case.

Horton was unmasked as the NightJack blogger in July 2009. Horton's blog, which won the prestigious Orwell prize for its descriptions of a PC's life, was then closed down and he was reprimanded by his police superiors.

Foster is a former graduate trainee at the Times. He left the paper in 2011 and has since written freelance articles for the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian.

The NightJack affair resurfaced in February at the Leveson inquiry into press ethics. James Harding, the editor of the Times, and the paper's former legal manager, Alastair Brett, gave evidence to the inquiry over the identification of Horton as NightJack.

Horton is now suing the publisher of the Times, News International subsidiary Times Newspapers, for breach of confidence, misuse of private information and deceit.

The Lancashire detective's claims all arise from the alleged unlawful accessing of his email account in May 2009.

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