A former army private has avoided a criminal trial over newspaper leaks after she accepted a caution and agreed to pay £40 to charity.
The ex-servicewoman was given a conditional caution after prosecutors decided a charge of committing misconduct in public office did not warrant a full trial.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which refused to name the former army private, said the woman had been arrested under Scotland Yard’s Operation Elveden inquiry for allegedly agreeing to leak information from within an Army barracks to journalists.
In accepting a caution, the CPS said she has admitted responsibility for breaking the law and has agreed to pay £40 to a charity linked to the armed forces.
Gregor McGill, a senior lawyer at the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “On Friday, 5 December 2014, the CPS received a file concerning an allegation against one individual, formerly a private in the army, of misconduct in public office.
“The evidence in this case was considered very carefully and although there was sufficient evidence to prosecute this offence, when considering the public interest it was decided that a conditional caution was an appropriate course of action.
“The individual was yesterday [Monday, 22 December] conditionally cautioned for an allegation that she entered into an agreement to obtain information from within army barracks for a newspaper, the condition being that she must make a payment of £40 to a charity connected with the armed services. In accepting a conditional caution, an individual accepts responsibility for the offending set out.
“The evidence was considered carefully in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, the DPP’s guidelines on the public interest in cases affecting the media and the DPP’s Guidance on Adult Conditional Cautions.”
A spokesman for the CPS said a caution could be issued if prosecutors decide that the allegation “does not warrant a full and public trial”.
In August, a former soldier avoided a criminal trial over newspaper leaks by paying £150 to a charity. It later emerged he had received £500 for a story.
A number of tabloid journalists have faced trial at the Old Bailey over allegations they paid public officials for stories.
Earlier this month, the Sun’s chief foreign correspondent, Nick Parker, was cleared of aiding and abetting Surrey police officer, Alan Tierney, to commit misconduct in a public office for stories about footballer John Terry’s mother and about Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood.
Following an Old Bailey trial, he was convicted of handling a Labour MP’s stolen mobile phone to read private texts about the Miliband brothers’ leadership battle.
A former News of the World journalist was also recently sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence, ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and put under tagged curfew for three months after being convicted of paying a prison officer for tips about Jon Venables, one of the killers of two-year-old James Bulger.
