Phone Hacking: former NotW journalist 'approved bribe for Huntley guard

A former features editor of the now-defunct News of the World allegedly approved a bribe for a prison guard to get information on Ian Huntley, the convicted child killer, it has emerged.

Matt Nixson, left, allegedly approved a bribe for a prison guard to get information on Ian Huntley, right, the convicted child killer 

Matt Nixson is said to have instructed a reporter to pay the female official £750 for details on Huntley, who murdered 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham, Cambs, in 2002.

In an email on March 7, 2009, he told a reporter, Matthew Acton, to go ahead with the initial payment and then to “chuck her some more money later”. Mr Nixson, who was fired from his job in July last year, allegedly asked that the payment be arranged “very carefully,” since the company had a “forensic new accountant who doesn’t brook any funny business”.

Details of the alleged bribe emerged from court documents filed by members of News Corporation’s Management and Standards Committee.

Mr Nixson “was guilty of gross misconduct, or at any rate, conduct justifying dismissal without notice or pay,” according to the committee.

But the journalist is suing its members for recommending that the company fire him from The Sun, where he had worked since moving from the News of the World in 2010.

A high court claim form says Mr Nixson was not provided with any reason for his dismissal at the meeting but that the decision had been taken by the management and standards committee following the discovery of emails relating to the journalist’s time at the News of the World which were “of interest to the police in their investigations”. Mr Nixson was not told what was in the emails.
He is seeking his £105,000 annual salary plus damages, claiming he will have difficulty finding work after being tainted by the phone-hacking scandal.
Officers from Scotland Yard are currently conducting Operation Elveden in an effort to investigate inappropriate payments by journalists to police. Bribes offered to public and private officials or executives are illegal.
A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the alleged payment of a prison guard.
Mr Nixson’s lawyer, Alison Downie, said she wanted to make it clear that her client “neither bribed, nor ever admitted to bribing a prison officer” and would pursue his claims against the company and committee.