The 60-year-old was arrested at his south-west London home early yesterday morning on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communication, contrary to section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, reports the BBC.

Bailed without charge

Mr Crone was interviewed at a south London police station and bailed without be charged. News agency reports said he was scheduled to report back to the police in mid-October.
The Lawyer newspaper reports that in April, News International chairman Rupert Murdoch raised questions over Mr Crone’s role at the News of the World, when he suggested the ‘culture of cover up’ at the now-defunct newspaper could be attributed to a ‘clever lawyer and drinking pal of the journalists’.

Shameful lie

At the time, Mr Crone rebuffed the allegations, stating:  ‘Since Rupert Murdoch’s evidence today about a lawyer who had been on the News of the World for many years can only refer to me, I am issuing the following statement. His assertion that I “took charge of a cover-up” in relation to ‘phone-hacking is a shameful lie.’
A total of 25 people have now been arrested as part of Scotland Yard’s ‘Operation Weeting’, which runs parallel to an inquiry into corrupt payments by journalists to public officials.