British private eye bailed after hacking arrest: reports

LONDON: A private investigator who was previously jailed for his role in phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World was bailed Wednesday after police probing the scandal detained him earlier in the day.

Police said a 41-year-old man had been arrested at 0700 GMT on suspicion of phone hacking and perverting the course of justice, and the BBC and the partly Murdoch-owned Sky News identified him as Glenn Mulcaire.

The arrest is the 18th made by officers working on Operation Weeting, the investigation set up in January into the illegal hacking of mobile phone voicemails at the paper, which was closed down in July.

"On 7 December 2011 officers from Operation Weeting arrested a man in connection with phone hacking and perverting the course of justice," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

"The man was taken into custody at a south London police station and this evening released on bail to a date in late March, pending further investigation.

"It would be inappropriate to discuss any further details at this time," the statement added.

A Scotland Yard spokesman refused to confirm the reports that the man was Mulcaire.

Mulcaire's London-based lawyers also declined to comment.