No action taken against Sky reporter over alleged accessing of canoe 'death'' couple's emails (From The Northern Echo)

No action taken against Sky reporter over alleged accessing of canoe 'death'' couple's emails

5:49pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News

SKY News' North of England correspondent, Gerard Tubb, who was accused of hacking into the emails of fake canoe death couple John and Anne Darwin will face no further action, prosecutors announced today.

Mr Tubb allegedly accessed the Seaton Carew couple's emails, but today the Crown Prosecution Service said it was uncertain whether this had taken place in the UK, and any prosecution would not be in the public interest.

Prosecutors also said that the public interest would outweigh any alleged criminal activity.

Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime at the CPS said: "On the evidence currently available it is not possible to ascertain whether the potential offence of unlawful interception of a communication was committed in the UK or the US.

"Although this may warrant further investigation, it has been decided under section 4.2 of the Code for Crown prosecutors that further investigations are not required as, in accordance with the DPPs guidelines, we do not consider that any potential prosecution would be in the public interest.

"Having considered the factors set out in the guidelines on cases affecting the media, it is our view that the evidence indicates that the public interest served by the conduct in question outweighs the potential overall criminality, should an offence be proved.

"In reaching this decision, we took into account that the emails were accessed with a view to showing that a criminal offence had been committed and that a number of the same emails were subsequently lawfully obtained by the police and used by the prosecution at the criminal trial of Anne Darwin."

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