Missing NOTW executive tracked down in Florida

A former News of the World assistant editor near the top of a list of people that detectives from the hacking inquiry want to speak to has been found living off the fig tree-lined avenues of Palm Beach, Florida.

Greg Miskiw, 61, (real name Ihor) who has been named in connection to phone-hacking damages claims and was last known to be living in a luxury flat in central Manchester, has been tracked down to a rented property a short walk from the beach in a trendy corner of the resort. His former partner was last month arrested in Leeds by officers from Operation Weeting, the ongoing phone-hacking investigation.

While his one-time colleagues, including the former NOTW editor Andy Coulson and assistant editor Ian Edmondson, have been answering the questions of detectives in London police stations about alleged conspiracy to intercept voicemails, Mr Miskiw seems to have been planning for a future in the Sunshine State, 4,000 miles away.

The Palm Beach Post found that the former executive has an apartment in a terracotta-roofed building close to the sandy shores of the Florida coast. It reported that Mr Miskiw had worked for two months this year for the publisher of the National Enquirer, a salacious gossip sheet in the US, and last month registered a company, News Team LLC.

The parking spot for the flat is occupied by an orange Saab 9-3 convertible. Sources pointed out that Mr Miskiw, who left the now-defunct NOTW in 2005, was a newsdesk executive during the time that phone hacking is alleged to have been conducted on behalf of the title.