Force confirms that former News International chief executive received one of its retired horses in 2008

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

The Metropolitan police, which is attempting to resist claims that it has been too close to Rupert Murdoch's News International (NI), has admitted it loaned Rebekah Brooks a police horse.

Brooks is a former NI chief executive. She was forced to resign amid the phone-hacking scandal.

On Monday, the Leveson inquiry heard she had received extensive information from a police officer about the Met's first investigation into phone hacking, while NI was under criminal investigation.

The Met said the horse had reached the end of its working life and there was nothing unusual in deciding to loan it, with Brooks responsible for paying for its upkeep.

Brooks was loaned the horse in 2008, when she was editor of the Sun, and it was kept at her home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Her husband, Charlie Brooks, is a racehorse trainer.

In a statement, probably one of the odder ones it has issued, the Met said: "When a police horse reaches the end of its working life, Mounted Branch officers find it a suitable retirement home … the appropriate welfare checks are carried out by Mounted Branch officers.

"Whilst responsibility for feeding the animal and paying vet bills passes to the person entrusted with its care at its new home, the horse remains the property of the Metropolitan police service.

"Retired police horses are not sold on and can be returned to the care of the MPS at any time."

The Met issued a further, more detailed statement on Tuesday night: "In 2007 a request was made by Rebekah Brooks to home a retired police horse. Mounted Branch conducted the normal property and welfare inspection, which was passed. As a result 22-year-old retired horse Raisa was loaned to Rebekah Brooks in 2008.

"The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) was contacted in early 2010 by an individual on behalf of Rebekah Brooks who asked the MPS to re-home Raisa, which was then 24, due to the horse no longer being ridden. When the horse was returned Raisa was regarded by officers from Mounted Branch to be in a poor but not serious condition. The horse was subsequently re-housed with a police officer in 2010, and later died of natural causes."

The Met was already facing a rough ride at the Leveson inquiry over its failures to investigate NI's criminal activities.

The scale of phone hacking by the News of the World led Rupert Murdoch to close the paper down, and on Monday police said the Sun was being investigated over the bribing of public officials.

One of the phone hacking victims is the former Met deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick, who is now the Liberal Democrat candidate to be London's mayor.

Paddick said of the news that Brooks had been loaned a horse by police: "It is clearly an error of judgment by the Met. They should have realised if they gave Rebekah Brooks a horse, it would come back and bite them."

A spoof Twitter feed, Rebekah's horse, gained more than 1,600 followers in the hours after the news broke.

Hacking victim John Prescott mocked the decision on Twitter: "Police sources reveal @rebekahshorse was working undercover for neeeeybourhood watch!" he tweeted.

The horse that Brooks received was one of 12 that were retired and rehomed by the Metropolitan police in 2008, when Sir Ian Blair was commissioner of Britain's biggest force.