A Sunday tabloid senior journalist has been suspended over claims Sienna Miller’s phone was hacked.
News of the World assistant news editor Ian Edmondson has been put on leave following a ‘serious allegation’.
A document lodged at the High Court in London links the journalist with the interception of voicemail messages from the phones of Miller and her partner Jude Law.
Records seized by police from a private investigator who worked for journalists at the paper suggest that Edmondson was linked to the hacking.
Sienna Miller is suing News Group, the News of the World’s parent company, and the private investigator for breach of privacy and harassment.
A spokesman for the newspaper said: “The News of the World has a zero tolerance approach to any wrongdoing.”
The allegations follow the phone-hack scandal that emerged when the paper was edited by Andy Coulson, now director of communications for Prime Minister David Cameron. Coulson resigned over the matter, although he said he knew nothing about the hacking.
Meanwhile Millr has pulled out of a planned appearance at a Heath Ledger tribute in Perth to be held on February 12.
“She deeply regrets that she can’t make it,” said organiser Grant Thomas.
“It is a shame, but it is a long way to come for one evening.”
