Walking

A little update on Neville Thurlbeck, former Chief Reporter of the News of The World. The Guardian says he became "former" early this month - up until then, he was suspended but still being paid. He's apparently heading to the East London Employment Tribunal on Friday, to bring a case for unfair dismissal against News International, on the grounds that he was a "whistleblower". If this all stands up, it'll be interesting to find out in whose ear the whistle was being blown, and when.

As far back as 2000, Neville was acting an an unpaid police informer, with the code name George. Hertfordshire Police thought money was changing hands, and brought a court case against Thurlbeck and a Detective Constable from the National Criminal Intelligence Service. It was dismissed, and Neville later told the Press Gazette "The police were very impressed about the type of intelligence I was coming up with and that was revealed in court. The judge said it was a substantial volume of information that was extremely useful to police."

Meanwhile Neville has been spending some time raising nearly £1600 for Help for Heroes, with a sponsored walk around East Anglia. His supporters are not without a sense of humour. "Thank God we're not sponsoring you for a pub crawl !" and "There must be easier ways of impressing the CPS ! Good luck Nev. Top effort" are among the comments. Sponsors from the old days include Tom Crone and Maz Mahmood.