Victory as Sun journalist clears name after ‘serious miscarriage of justice’

The only journalist with an outstanding conviction after a controversial police probe into payments to public officials has won an appeal against what he condemned as a “serious miscarriage of justice”. Sun crime reporter Anthony France, 42, from Watford, had his conviction quashed by three judges at the Court of Appeal in London late last month. After the ruling he said: “I am delighted that this serious miscarriage of justice has ended today, allowing me to rebuild my life after 1,379 days of sheer hell.” He was found guilty by a jury following the high-profile, multimillion-pound Operation Elveden, which was launched in 2011 to investigate payments by journalists to public officials and led to 90 arrests and 34 convictions. But, out of 29 cases against journalists, the only jury conviction to remain standing was that of Mr France’s case. Mr France said afterwards: “Having spent more than three years and nine months fighting to clear my name, this is not a time for celebration. Nobody has ‘won’ and the public are less informed.” Hear more about this story and what else is happening in your local community in the November edition of MyWatfordNews, which will be distributed on November 11.