Former Sun reporter Nick Parker is being accused of paying police officer for stories, the Press Gazette reported.
Police officer Alan Tierney pleaded guilty and admitted he sold the Sun stories about “celebrities or their relations” who crossed his path. Parker has pleaded not guilty.
“Mr Tierney was after the money and Mr Parker was after the story,” the prosecutor, Michael Parroy said in the trial.
Parker is also accused of paying prison officer Lee Brockhouse for stories. Brockhouse is under trial for the payments. He also is accused of selling stories to another UK paper The People, the Press Gazette reported.
A fourth man, Michael Ankers, is charged with breaking into a car in 2010 to steal a cell phone of a Parliament member and then selling the information on it to Parker.
According to the Guardian, “The Sun agreed to pay Ankers £10,000 if it published a story based on the phone’s contents, the jury was told.”
Brockhouse and Ankers deny the charges against them as well.