The media chief at Scotland Yard has resigned after he faced gross misconduct charges over the phone hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, Britain's police watchdog said Thursday. Dick Fedorcio stood down a week after the Metropolitan Police said it would start proceedings against him for hiring Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the now-closed paper, as a media consultant.
It is the third major resignation from Scotland Yard, after the head of the force and another senior policeman stood down in July last year at the height of the scandal. "I have today been notified that Dick Fedorcio, the Metropolitan Police Service Director of Public Affairs, has resigned," Deborah Glass, the deputy head of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said in a statement.
She said the watchdog had been investigating the hiring by Scotland Yard of Wallis's company Chamy Media for media consultancy work, despite the fact that the force was itself probing wrongdoing at the News International tabloid. Glass said the IPCC sent a report to Scotland Yard's Directorate of Professional Standards in January recommending that Fedorcio "has a case to answer".
"Last week the Metropolitan Police Service proposed to initiate proceedings for gross misconduct and I agreed with that proposal. "In light of Mr Fedorcio's resignation today, those proceedings cannot now take place and I propose to publish our investigation report detailing our findings in the next few days."
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