Bethany Usher, senior lecturer in media and journalism at Teesside, is understood to have been arrested this morning.

Althought the police have not named the 31-year-old woman involved, it is believed that Ms Usher has been arrested in relation to her former role as a reporter at the now defunct News of the World, where she worked from 2006 to 2007.

She was arrested during that time on suspicion of falsifying details in a job application, believed to have been to the Royal Household.

Ms Usher tweeted during yesterday¡¯s hearing of the Leveson inquiry, which is looking into media ethics, in response to testimony from Paul McMullan, a former deputy features editor at the News of the World.

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She said in her tweets that the work culture that Mr McMullan described was ¡°not representative¡± of her experience, adding: ¡°Just a shame that decent journalists feel need to get out of tabloids. Academia is far nicer.¡±

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: ¡°Officers from Operation Weeting have this morning arrested a woman in connection with conspiring to intercept communications.

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¡°The woman, 31, is now in custody at a police station in Northumbria.¡±

A spokesman for Teesside said it ¡°would be inappropriate to comment on any ongoing police investigation¡±.

sarah.cunnane@tsleducation.com