Hacking scandal: 'NOTW' Hollywood reporter pays price for star-gazing

British police investigating a phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s defunct News of the World have arrested a senior Hollywood reporter at the tabloid, James Desborough, a source with knowledge of the situation said. 

Police said they had arrested a 38-year-old man on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications after arriving at a south London police station on Thursday morning by appointment. 

Desborough joined the News of the World in 2005 as a showbusiness and news reporter and was promoted to become US editor, based in Los Angeles, in 2009. He worked for the News of the World up until it closed last month. 

The Guardian newspaper’s website said the allegations were believed to relate to events before Desborough was sent to the US. The arrest is the 13th this year in an inquiry that has rocked the News of the World’s parent company, Murdoch’s News Corp.