Sun journalists cleared in final 'cash-for-stories' trial

Two Sun journalists have been cleared of encouraging a corrupt police tipster in the final Operation Elveden trial of journalists.

News editor Chris Pharo, 46, and district reporter Jamie Pyatt, 52, were found not guilty of aiding and abetting a Surrey police officer to commit misconduct in a public office between 2002 and 2011.

The jury was not told that the officer, Simon Quinn, of Horsham, West Sussex, had pleaded guilty to the offence and been jailed for 18 months earlier this year.

The case brings to an end the multimillion pound prosecution against several tabloid journalists for alleged payments to public officials.

Out of 29 cases against journalists, most of whom were from The Sun or the now-closed News of the World, only Sun crime reporter Anthony France has been convicted by a jury.

Mr Pyatt's lawyer told the court there had "been a monumental error of judgement" in the Crown Prosecution Service's pursuit of the case.