Policeman jailed for selling stories to British tabloid The Sun
Prison officer is also put behind bars after selling information to Murdoch's The Sun
A former policeman and a prison officer were jailed yesterday for selling information to Britain's top-selling newspaper The Sun.
Ex-constable Alan Tierney and Richard Trunkfield, who worked at a high security prison, were jailed for 10 months and 16 months respectively by a judge at England's Old Bailey central criminal court in London.
Tierney gave the tabloid, which is owned by media baron Rupert Murdoch, tip-offs about the separate arrests of the mother of England footballer John Terry and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
Trunkfield sold information about notorious child-killer Jon Venables, who was just 10 years old when he and a schoolmate murdered Liverpool toddler James Bulger in 1993.
Both Tierney, 40, and 31-year-old Trunkfield admitted misconduct in a public office earlier this month.
Judge Adrian Fulford, who passed sentence on the pair in separate hearings, said: "This country has long prided itself on the integrity of its public officials and cynical acts of betrayal of that high standard have a profoundly corrosive effect."