British police question Piers Morgan over phone hacking

British police questioned Piers Morgan in connection with a phone hacking investigation on Tuesday, the television host and journalist said in a statement.

Morgan is the former editor of the Daily Mirror, where journalists have been accused of illegally accessing the voicemails of public figures, an issue at the centre of a long-running scandal in Britain.

Morgan wrote he had attended a “police interview re Mirror hacking investigation” in a message on social media site Twitter.

“No, I wasn’t arrested. Sorry to disappoint everyone,” he added.

“As this is an ongoing investigation, I am unable to comment further until its conclusion,” Morgan said in a further statement.

London’s Metropolitan Police force said a 50-year-old man had been interviewed “under caution… in connection with suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails.”

In 2011 a former Daily Mirror journalist James Hipwell, who had worked under Morgan, told an interview with The Independent newspaper that phone hacking was “endemic” at the newspaper.

But Morgan has always denied involvement in any phone hacking.

Codenamed Operation Golding, the probe began after accusations of phone hacking at fellow tabloid News of the World, which was shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch at the height of the scandal.

Morgan, who is currently editor-at-large for the Mail Online in the United States, was previously interviewed in 2013 as part of the investigation.

Known for appearing as a judge on America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent and for hosting a live show on CNN, Morgan was Daily Mirror editor from 1995 to 2004.

He was sacked from the post after the newspaper ran photos purporting to show British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, pictures which were later found to have been faked.