LONDON--British police questioned former CNN talk-show host and
former U.K. tabloid editor Piers Morgan for a second time on
Tuesday as part of a long-running probe of alleged phone hacking by
British journalists.
Mr. Morgan's agent, John Ferriter, confirmed his client had met
with police but stressed that he had done so voluntarily.
"He was asked to attend an interview, which he did," said Mr.
Ferriter. "Nothing has changed."
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that detectives had
interviewed a 50-year-old man under caution as part of Operation
Golding, the code name for the force's investigation of alleged
phone hacking at titles owned by Mirror Group Newspapers PLC. The
police said the man hadn't been arrested.
"No, I wasn't arrested. Sorry to disappoint everyone," said a
tweet sent from Mr. Morgan's official Twitter account.
Police have been investigating phone hacking generally for
nearly nine years, but intensified their efforts in 2011 amid a
series of wide-ranging public inquiries into the ethics of
newsgathering methods by the British press. Those inquiries, one by
lawmakers and another by a senior judge, were initially sparked by
revelations that some reporters had unlawfully listened to messages
left on the cellphones of celebrities and public figures.
Mr. Morgan, 50 years old, edited the Daily Mirror, a Trinity
Mirror title, from 1995 to 2004. Trinity Mirror declined to comment
Tuesday.
Police had questioned Mr. Morgan as part of the broader probe in
2013, as previously reported.
In past public statements and interviews, Mr. Morgan has denied
illegally intercepting voice mails or having any knowledge that it
happened under his editorship at the Mirror.
The disclosure of Mr. Morgan's questioning comes days after
British prosecutors dropped charges against nine defendants,
including Andy Coulson, the former editor of the now-defunct News
Corp tabloid News of the World. The prosecutors' move was a major
setback for the wide-ranging investigation of alleged illicit
practices at U.K. tabloids that has cost millions of pounds in
court fees and police time, but yielded few convictions.
On Friday, jurors in a separate trial also acquitted a former
Daily Mirror reporter and two reporters from the News Corp title
The Sun accused of conspiring to commit misconduct in public
office, the charge leveled at most reporters accused of bribing
government employees for stories.
News Corp, which owns the publisher of The Wall Street Journal,
declined to comment Tuesday.
Mr. Morgan played a bit part in a separate, high-profile trial
of Mr. Coulson and another former News of the World editor, Rebekah
Brooks, last year.
While the eight-month court battle captured the public
imagination and shone a spotlight on practices at several British
newspapers, prosecutors were left with little to show for the
effort.
Ms. Brooks, who pleaded not guilty, was acquitted of all
charges, including phone hacking, bribery and two counts of
obstruction of justice. Mr. Coulson was found guilty of one count
of conspiring to intercept phone voice mails between 2002 and 2006
and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He left jail late last year
after serving five months of his term.
Write to Alexis Flynn at alexis.flynn@wsj.com
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