The Sun’s royal editor, Duncan Larcombe, is to leave the paper more than a year after an Old Bailey trial that saw him cleared of any wrongdoing in relation to tips about Princes William and Harry.
He has secured a deal with Harper Collins for a book on Prince Harry and has decided not to return to the tabloid when this is complete as part of what is being described as an “amicable” arrangement.
Larcombe was one of 18 journalists on the paper who were arrested, charged, and acquitted in relation to payments for tips and leaks from public officials to the paper.
After his acquittal he described his three-and-a-half-year battle to clear his name as a “nightmare” and called for and an end to the “witch-hunt” against his colleagues.
He was cleared of aiding and abetting John Hardy, a Sandhurst instructor who landed £23,700 for leaks about Prince Harry, Prince William and others who attended the military academy.
“I don’t think I have done anything wrong and I still have to be convinced why I’m sitting here,” he told jurors last year.
Larcombe returned to work at the Sun last November, covering Prince Harry’s trip to Lesotho. Friends say it was there that he decided he did not want to continue on the royal beat and end up in the twilight of his career with little more to recount than the day he “had a beer with Harry”.
The vast majority of the 19 current and former Sun staff who were brought to trial have returned to the paper, although some are still considering their position including Jamie Pyatt, the paper’s Thames Valley district reporter who was also cleared of separate charges in a separate trial.
