Phone-hacking: Police hand files to prosecutors

By politics.co.uk staff

Police have handed case files relating to 11 suspects in the phone-hacking investigation to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

The files include four journalists and one police officer.

The alleged offenses include misconduct in a public office, data protection act breaches, perverting the course of justice, witness intimidation and breaches of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa).

"We are now entering a period where we are likely to make a decision one way or another," , director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer said.

In total, 43 people arrested under the various operations on phone-hacking and associated offences remain on bail.

Some of the suspects in the files handed to the CPS have not been questioned by police, Mr Starmer added.

"The decisions we are going to make are going to be extremely difficult and extremely sensitive," he said.

"We have got to make a decision because these cases are coming. We cannot duck that."
 

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