Hacking: Scotland Yard anti-terrorism officers regarded investigation as 'bit of a jolly'

They thought the hacking investigation would be a waste of time, but would be “a bit of fun” involving travel and “meeting famous people”, according to Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn, of the Yard’s SO15 counter-terrorism command.

She phoned the News of the World in 2010 in the hope that the newspaper would expose the fact that valuable anti-terrorism resources were being used to investigate hacking instead of “saving lives”.

She denies a charge of misconduct in public office which was laid against her when details of the phone call came to light.

Giving evidence to Southwark Crown Court on the second day of her trial, Mrs Casburn, 53, said that in Sep 2010 she was told during a senior officers’ meeting that the then Assistant Commissioner John Yates was launching a fresh investigation into phone-hacking.

Mrs Casburn told the jury: “[Det Chf Sup Clive] Timmons came into the meeting and he was in quite a jovial mood, and said: ‘Yatesey’s relaunched the hacking inquiry.’

“There was a discussion about how there were potentially lots of victims and there was palpable excitement from within the team, particularly from [Det Supt] Micky Broster regarding who would get to go and see Sienna Miller.”

She said that she was at the time liaising with MI5 and MI6 and that counter-terrorism command (CTC) was particularly busy because it was the day before the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which fell that year during the Muslim festival of Eid, putting the country on a heightened state of alert.

“I felt very strongly that we shouldn’t be doing hacking,” she said. “Our function was to prevent terrorist attacks and I was particularly worried that the behaviour of my colleagues was that they thought it was a bit of a jolly.

“Mr Timmons said it would be an awful lot of work for nothing because the legal position was not clear [regarding the criminality of hacking] but they thought it was all going to be a bit of fun, getting to travel, meet famous people, it was that kind of atmosphere.

“I didn’t feel we should be should be diverting resources from saving people’s lives...it made me really angry.”

She said she rang the News of the World the next day, hoping that it would run a story highlighting the use of “valuable counter-terrorism assets” which would influence the way the investigation was being resourced.

She did not raise the matter with her senior officers because, as one of only three women officers of senior rank in CTC she said she had little influence on male officers who drank together and played golf together in what she likened to “Life on Mars in the 21st century”.

She said she now regretted making the phone call but still felt very strongly “about diluting our efforts against terrorism” on an investigation which she thought “would be a complete waste of public money and a complete waste of counter-terrorist assets”.

Mrs Casburn, a mother of two who has been married three times, burst into tears when she was asked about her arrest in Dec 2011, which came when she was on leave having just adopted a child following two unsuccessful attempts at IVF with her husband.

Asked why she did not admit straight away that she had phoned the News of the World, she sobbed: “It’s really difficult when you’re that stressed and you’re that scared. The only thing I cared about was that they would make an Every Child Matters referral,” which might have resulted in her child being taken away.

The officer, who joined the police in 1993 after previous careers in the Army and in the private sector, was manager of SO15’s National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit at the time of the alleged offence.

She said she never asked the News of the World for money, and the court was told that she was financially secure at the time, with £30,000 in Premium Bonds, another £20,000 in savings and £45,000 due to her from a divorce settlement.

The hearing continues.