Identity Of Nightjack Police Blogger Revealed By High Court Ruling

A covert police blogger, who gained huge popularity for his posts on behind-the-scenes reality into policing, has been recognized as a Lancashire detective following a high court verdict that disclosed his identity.

The officer, Richard Horton, from the Lancashire Police’s Eastern division, had intended to keep his identity concealed as he posted various contentious entries on to his prize-winning blog, popularly known as NightJack.

After a national newspaper probed into who was the author of the critically acclaimed blog, Horton was discovered as the writer, and subsequently he tried to take out injunction against the newspaper, The Times, to stop publishing his name.

However, in a landmark decision about the privacy of bloggers, Justice Eady ruled out that bloggers can’t opt for legal processes to keep their identity a secret.

Incidentally, Horton’s blogs, which received the coveted Orwell Prize for political writing a couple of months back, offered a great insight into policing and suggested those reeling through police investigation to “complain about every officer... show no respect to the legal system or anybody working in it”.

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However, no further action will be taken against the 45-year-old blogger after targeting the ministers and forces in an anonymous blog, police notified.

A spokesperson for police said, “We have conducted a full internal investigation and the officer accepts that parts of his public commentary have fallen short of the standards of professional behaviour we expect of our police officers”.

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