Former NOTW crime editor arrested in connection with police corruption case

The former News of the World crime editor was held yesterday as part of an inquiry into alleged payments to police officers.

Lucy Panton was arrested at her home in Surrey at 6.15am and questioned at a south London police station. She was later released on police bail.

She is the seventh person held as a result of Scotland Yard's Operation Elveden investigation into illicit payments to officers.

Ms Panton, 37, has two young children and is understood to have taken maternity leave shortly before the Sunday tabloid was closed in July as a result of the phone-hacking scandal. She is married to a serving Metropolitan Police officer.

She joined the News of the World in 2002, moving from The People, where she made her name as the only journalist present during a Scotland Yard operation to foil a major diamond raid in London in 2000.

Others arrested as part of Operation Elveden include the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, and, more recently, Jamie Pyatt, a district editor at The Sun.