A former journalist who became a police community support officer has denied leaking details of an attempted murder inquiry to a reporter.
Emma Smiter was giving evidence in her defence against three charges - misconduct in a public office, unlawful disclosure of personal data and trying to pervert the course of justice.
Smiter told Basildon crown court she had not passed on information gleaned from police computers to the Reading-based news agency INS. She said she used police computers solely for legitimate reasons.
She told jurors that although she knew the INS director Neil Hyde they were "just friends". She had not passed confidential police information to him.
Prosecutors claim that Smiter, 26, from Welwyn Garden City, gave details of police inquiries to Hyde, who then passed it on to national newspapers.
It meant that confidential information about an inquiry into an allegation of attempted murder appeared in The Sun and Daily Mirror.
Smiter, daughter of a senior policeman, is also accused of telling the news agency about a charity box at a police station in Borehamwood being "£12 short".
Prosecutors said Ms Smiter, who was a reporter with the Welwyn and Hatfield Times before working for the police, breached the trust placed in her by the police and the public.
Jurors have also heard Ms Smiter claimed some of the information found in newspapers had come from internet blogs - not police files.
The prosecution alleges she created the blogs after being charged in an attempt to support her defence, mislead jurors and pervert the course of justice.
The trial continues.
Sources: BBC/Welwyn & Hatfield Times/PA
