A former chief reporter is claiming that Scots newspapers have paid corrupt police officers for information, and still do.
But Charles Lavery, who was at the Sunday Mail until early last year, and now works freelance, has written in his blog today that a long-running and expensive police investigation, several years ago, that put at least one Scots journalist under surveillance, came up with no more than one police officer appearing in court and the case collapsing, with 'no case to answer'.
Lavery's claims follow allegations of police officers being paid for information by the News of the World, which published its last edition on Sunday, amid various accusations, including it hacked into the mobile telephone of the murdered teenager, Milly Dowler.
He makes no mention of any individual newspaper.
