LONDON, July 17 (UPI) -- The phone hacking scandal that toppled the News of the World tabloid knocked out the head of Britain's Scotland Yard Sunday.
Before Paul Stephenson's resignation announcement, London police said former News of the World editor and News International executive Rebekah Brooks was arrested Sunday on suspicion of corruption and illegally hacking into telephones.
Brooks, 43, recently resigned as chief executive of News International, part of media mogul Rupert Murdoch's corporate empire.
Police told the BBC Brooks surrendered to officers from two task forces investigating the hacking of phones by journalists and the possibility that police officials were paid off in the process.
Murdoch has been issuing public and private apologies for the hacking incidents in an attempt to calm the fierce criticism he and his media outlets have come under in Great Britain.
Stephenson resigned as London's Metropolitan Police commissioner after criticism over his decision to hire Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at News of the World who also has been arrested on suspicion of phone hacking, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Stephenson said that while he was stepping down so as not to "compromise" Prime Minister David Cameron's administration, he noted Wallis had not been tainted by the phone hacking scandal at the time he was hired as an aide in October 2009. Cameron has been embarrassed by the revelations of phone hacking at the tabloid where his former communications director, Andy Coulson, was editor from 2003-2007. Coulson resigned his post with the Cameron government in January.
"Let me turn to the reported displeasure of the prime minister and the home secretary of the relationship with Mr. Wallis," Stephenson said. "At the time [I had] no reason for considering the contractual relationship to be a matter of concern.
"Unlike Mr. Coulson, Mr. Wallis had not resigned from the News of the World or, to the best of my knowledge been in any way associated with the original phone hacking investigation."
Stephenson said the scandal was overshadowing the "heroism and bravery" of his department's police officers.
"That can never be right. If I stayed I know the inquiry outcomes would reaffirm my personal integrity," he said. "Therefore, although I have received continued personal support from both the home secretary and the mayor, I have with great sadness informed both of my intention to resign."
