London's police chief has quit over his links to a former News of the World editor caught up in the phone hacking scandal. Metropolitan Police commissioner Paul Stephenson denies any wrongdoing. Stephenson has been criticized for hiring Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor arrested last week in the scandal, as a part-time PR consultant for a year until September 2010.
He said he did not make the decision to hire Wallis, and had no knowledge of Wallis's links to phone hacking. "I will not lose any sleep over my personal integrity," he said.
Earlier Sunday, Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the News of the World and close confidante of Rupert Murdoch, was arrested as part of the investigation into the alleged phone hacking and police bribery, sources familiar with the situation said.
Brooks, 43, has said she was unaware of allegations that the News of the World tabloid hacked thousands of phones including that of a murdered schoolgirl.