Police officer sentenced to prison in British phone-hacking scandal

British police officer Det. Chief Inspector April Casburn arrives at Southwark Crown Court in central London last month in her corruption trial. (Carl Court / Agence France-Press / Getty Images / February 1, 2013)

By Janet Stobart, LA Times
February 1, 2013, 7:57 a.m.

LONDON — A senior police officer was given a 15-month term in prison Friday, the first person sentenced in the wide-ranging phone-hacking inquiry in Britain.

Det. Chief Inspector April Casburn was convicted last month of illegally attempting to sell information to a tabloid journalist in 2010. Judge Adrian Fulford was handed down by who called her actions "a corrupt attempt to make money out of sensitive and potentially very damaging information," according to a BBC report.

Scotland Yard, where Casburn had headed the counter-terrorism squad at the time of her offense, issued a statement expressing its “great disappointment” that she “abused her position.”

During her trial, Casburn spoke of her unhappiness at work and anger that counter-terrorist officers were diverted to investigate accusations that the now-defunct News of the World tabloid had made extensive use of phone hacking to gain news scoops.

(More here.)