Scotland yard

Scotland Yard has made 18 arrests so far between its three operations related to the phone-hacking scandal

Credit: Alberto OG on Flickr. Some rights reserved

The Metropolitan police's investigation into computer hacking by the press has made its first arrest today.

According to a statement from Scotland Yard, a 52-year-old man was arrested today on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act.

He is currently in custody at Thames Valley Police station.

The investigation, dubbed Operation Tuleta, is looking into allegations regarding breach of privacy received by the Metropolitan Police Service since January 2011, today's statement said.

The operation was established to take care of hacking complaints that fell outside of the remit of the Met's
phone-hacking investigation, Operation Weeting.

News of the arrest comes as actor Sienna Miller gives evidence at the Leveson inquiry into press standards and phone hacking.

News International, publisher of the now-defunct News of the World, has admitted that the tabloid was responsible for illegally accessing Miller's emails.

Although the publisher did not refer specifically to computer hacking, its barrister Michael Silverleaf QC said in response to Miller's allegations:
"We admit that we are liable for all the wrongs that are alleged to have been acted."

The Met is conducting three operations relating to the phone hacking scandal: Tuleta, Weeting, and Operation Elveden, which is looking at corrupt payments to police officers.

So far 18 people have been arrested by officers from the three operations. Operation Weeting accounts for 16 of those arrests, Elveden for six, and Tuleta for one, the additional number accounted for by three joint arrests between Weeting and Elveden.

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