Journalist Sally Murrer is expected to find out this week whether she will escape a five-week trial and possible imprisonment after being charged with “aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office”.
The obscure charge is believed to relate to news stories Murrer is accused of receiving from former policeman with the Thames Valley force, Mark Kearney.
After four days of pre-trial hearings the case was adjourned today at Kingston Crown Court and there is a chance Murrer may not have to face trial if the judge rules in her favour later this week.
Reporting restrictions are in place but the pre-trial arguments centred around the caim that Thames Valley Police breached Murrer’s Article 10 rights to freedom of expression as a journalist.
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Murrer, a mother of three and part-time journalist with the Milton Keynes Citizen, has denied three charges of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring Kearney to commit the offence of ‘misconduct in a public office”.
Murrer has previously told Press Gazette that she has been through hell since she was first arrested last May. She was locked up twice for questioning – the first time for 30 hours.
She says she has not done anything that any journalist covering crime stories does not regularly do.
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