Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers
23 July 2012. Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson Inquiry that Mirror Group and Express Newspapers paid illegal money to prison officials to obtain leads to stories of interest to the public. She said that Metropolitan Police was investigating allegations that one prison official received £35,000 from various newspapers and another received £14,000 from Trinity Mirror. She added that the information they obtained was of little interest to the public. As part of Operation Elveden, 41 people have been arrested including 23 former and current journalists, four police officers, nine public officials and five conduits for payment. As a part of Operation Tuleta, seven arrests were made for hacking into computers and infringement of privacy. Sun had made payments amounting to £80,000 to one individual over many years. She alleged that one journalist had received £150,000 from the paper to pay sources. DAC Akers is due to retire from the Met in May but she agreed to return to give evidence to the inquiry again in September.
