News of the World: police watchdog investigates Milly Dowler leak

Surrey police officer alleged to have given information to tabloid about investigation into teenager’s murder The police watchdog is investigating an allegation that a Surrey police officer gave information about the Milly Dowler murder investigation to the News of the World. On Friday the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it was investigating the claim following a voluntary referral from the force about an allegation that an officer gave information to the newspaper in relation to the investigation into Dowler’s murder in 2002. “An IPCC deputy senior investigator has been over at Surrey police this morning to get more information about the case and will be writing to the Dowler family, via their solicitors at their request, this afternoon and offering to meet to give them more detail,” the commission said. “Until then, it would not be appropriate for us to make any further detail public.” The Guardian understands that the allegations relate to the early stages of the investigation into Dowler’s disappearance. It is thought a Surrey police officer met a female journalist from the News of the World at a social event in London and told her details about the leads officers who were working on the case were following. It is not thought he was paid for that information. Sources claimed the officer in question was publicly admonished in front of colleagues when the paper subsequently published the information in a story, taken off the case and then disciplined. The Dowler family’s solicitor, Mark Lewis, said he had not been told how long the IPCC investigation will take. “They need to look at their own information about who the officer was, what he said and what he gave out,” he told the BBC News channel, referring to the information passed voluntarily to the commission by Surrey police. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Milly Dowler Crime Police James Robinson guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 12, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.