No further action against one individual for conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office or aiding and abetting misconduct in public office
Gregor McGill, a senior lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service, said,
“The CPS has decided that no further action will be taken regarding one journalist. After careful consideration it has been decided that there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office or aiding and abetting misconduct in public office.
“This decision was taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the Director’s guidelines on assessing the public interest in cases affecting the media, which includes the additional guidance published in April 2015 on cases involving payments made to corrupt public officials by journalists.
“Any decision by the CPS does not imply any finding concerning guilt or criminal conduct; the CPS makes decisions only according to the test set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors and it is applied in all decisions on whether or not to prosecute.”
For editors:
The CPS's function is not to decide whether a person is guilty of a criminal offence, but to make fair, independent and objective assessments about whether it is appropriate to present charges for the criminal court to consider. The CPS assessment of any case is not in any sense a finding of, or implication of, any guilt or criminal conduct. It is not a finding of fact, which can only be made by a court, but rather an assessment of what it might be possible to prove to a court, in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
This assessment is based on the evidence available arising out of the police investigation and not on the evidence that is likely to be gathered by the defence, and likely to be used to test the prosecution evidence. The CPS charging decision is therefore necessarily an assessment on the basis of the evidence that is available to the CPS at the time the decision is made.
CPS prosecutors must also keep every case under review, so that they take account of any change in circumstances that occurs as the case develops, including what becomes known of the defence case. If appropriate, the CPS may change the charges or stop a case.
