Former Parliamentary spokesman for angling - Martin Salter has been reportedly named as a target in the News of the World scandal.

Source: GetReading.co.uk

Former Reading West MP Martin Salter has been reportedly named as one of the figures targeted by a private investigator implicated in the News of the World scandal.

Mr Salter, according to files obtained by The Guardian newspaper, was the victim of an inquiry by a private detective who paid a junior police officer to search the police national computer for information.

His name emerged alongside former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and another MP Nick Brown.

The Guardian says it has a transcript of a previously unreported court case in which it was revealed Devon and Cornwall Police had discovered one of its officers was providing information to the private investigator in 2003.

The paper says the investigator was making enquiries on behalf of journalists at the time when the News of the World was attacking Mr Salter for refusing to support its campaign to pass legislation – Sarah’s Law – to publicise the whereabouts of convicted paedophiles.

However The Guardian says the private investigator has refused to name the journalists who commissioned him.

Yesterday Mr Salter told the Reading Post the matter was in the hands of his solicitors but said he thought he was a target because he “stood up to Rebekah Brooks”.

The News of the World under of the editorship of Rebekah Brooks led the campaign for Sarah’s Law following the murder of Sarah Payne by Roy Whiting, a convicted sex offender who had been released from prison.

Mr Salter refused to support the newspaper’s campaign to allow parents to have access to the Sex Offenders’ Register.

In June 2006, he spoke up in the House of Commons about the dangers of publicising information about convicted paedophiles when a right wing website called Redwatch linked to another called Noncewatch emerged.

The website said: “Nonces deserve nothing more than a decent British noose around their necks and a long drop.”

Mr Salter stood down as MP for Reading West in 2010 and has been in Australia ever since. He returns to this country next month.

He told the Reading Post yesterday: “My only quote is to say how much I’m looking forward to seeing the bullies at News International answering for their criminal conduct in a court of law.

“Along with many other victims of the News of the World I have placed the matter in the hands of my solicitors and await developments with interest.

“Their Sarah’s Law campaign was dangerous and irresponsible and led to a paediatrician being burnt out of their home in a disgraceful vigilante attack.

“I stood up to Rebekah Brooks because I agreed with children’s charities and social workers who warned that kids would be at greater risk if released sex offenders were driven underground and away from supervision in the community.

“It seems this has made me a target.”