Charges against reporter over break-in dropped

Officials have dropped charges against a newspaper reporter arrested by police investigating a break-in at their own headquarters.

Ron McKay of Scotland on Sunday was arrested and charged with reset, the Scottish offence of handling or seeing stolen property, after his newspaper carried articles on a break-in at the Edinburgh headquarters of Lothian and Borders Police.

But yesterday the Crown Office said it had considered a 'full report' from the local procurator fiscal and there would be no further criminal proceedings against Mr McKay. The break-in, in which intruders took several documents from the office of the Scottish Crime Squad, was a major embarrassment for police in the run-up to the EC leaders' summit in Edinburgh.