Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned Monday in the continuing fall-out from a phone-hacking scandal, which forced Britain's top police official to resign the previous day, according to dpa. Yates resigned after being informed that he would be suspended pending an inquiry into his relationship with Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the now-defunct News of the World, the newspaper at the centre of the scandal. Wallis, who was arrested last week, also worked as a media consultant for the Metropolitan Police. The placement of former Rupert Murdoch employees in police and government jobs is one of the issues critics have seized on. The News of the World is alleged to have hacked into the phones of up to 4,000 people, including families of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, a murdered teenager, and victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. The police have been accused of a lack of transparency in investigating the hacking allegations and also for taking money from Murdoch's newspaper. In yet another twist to the story, former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare, who was quoted in a New York Times article saying that former editor Andy Coulson had "encouraged" him to hack phones, was found dead Monday. Police said Hoare's body was found at his Watford home after concerns had been raised about his whereabouts. Police said the death was "unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious." Coulson's involvement in the scandal has been especially problematic for British politics as he was later hired to be director of communications for Prime Minister David Cameron. Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned late Sunday as a result of allegations over Scotland Yard's links to the newspaper. Rebekah Brooks was arrested earlier Sunday, two days after she resigned as chief executive of the British arm of Murdoch's News International. She was subsequently freed on bail. Brook's lawyer Stephen Parkinson said Monday that she was not shown any documents linking her to crimes, nor was she faced with any allegations during a nine-hour detention. The arrest, following a week in which Brooks quit amid questions of what she knew about the alleged phone hacking caused "enormous reputational damage," said Parkinson. "She is not guilty of any criminal offence," he said. "They (police) will in due course have to give an account of their actions, and in particular their decision to arrest her, with the enormous reputational damage that this has involved." Parkinson confirmed that Brooks will appear before a parliamentary committee investigating the phone hacking allegations, immediately after testimony by News International chief Rupert Murdoch and his son and heir apparent, James. Also Monday, the Serious Fraud Office said it would give "full consideration" by a request from a member of parliament for an investigation into News International's activities. The agency investigates and prosecutes serious cases of fraud and corruption. In the two weeks since the allegations surfaced, the storm has only grown, with Murdoch having to withdraw a controversial bid to take full ownership of British broadcaster BSkyB, News of the World shuttered, and calls for investigations of practices at other newspapers in Murdoch's stable.
