Lucy Panton is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

journalist, a former '' News of the World'' crime editor, and the seventh person arrested under

Operation Elveden Operation Elveden was a British police investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police officers and other public officials. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investiga ...

on 15 December 2011.

''News of the World''

Panton joined the ''News of the World'' in September 2002 from the '' Sunday People'', taking up the position of crime correspondent. She was promoted to crime editor in October 2005. On 30 October 2010, Panton was asked by ''News of the World'' news editor James Mellor to find out more from Metropolitan Police anti-terror head John Yates about the printer cartridge bomb found on a cargo plane at

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is () to the south and Lincoln () ...

the previous day. Mellor wrote in an email to Panton: Panton replied: "Noted. Not got hold of him yet still trying." Panton was on maternity leave at the time of the closure of the newspaper in July 2011. Panton was arrested at her home in Surrey. She was later released on police bail. that was enlarged over a 19 month period during the inquiry. Her conviction of November 2014 was overturned after the Court of Appeal ruled on 31 March 2015 that Mr Justice Wide had misdirected the jury over the level of seriousness needed to make the charge stick. It was Panton’s successful appeal against an earlier conviction for conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office that led to the collapse of the Elveden cases. In the judgment, the lord chief justice, Lord Thomas, questioned the use of the 700-year-old common law offence to pursue journalists, and said the jury was misdirected. Public interest had to be considered before the actions of the journalists could be considered criminal, he said. During his evidence to the Leveson Inquiry in March 2012, former Metropolitan Police anti-terror head John Yates admitted that he drank

champagne Champagne (, ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, that demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, ...

with Panton and other executives from the tabloid newspaper. Yates denied that he gave Panton any favours in return for such hospitality, or that the relationship between the two was that close.

References

External links

Lucy Panton
at

Journalisted The Media Standards Trust is a British media think tank formed in 2006. It carries out research on issues in the media sector. It also advocates for press freedom as well as industry quality, transparency and accountability. It is a registered char ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panton, Lucy Living people British crime journalists News of the World people People associated with the News International phone hacking scandal Year of birth missing (living people)