Times accused of misleading High Court on email hacking It was claimed yesterday that a Times reporter hacked into a private email account to obtain information for a controversial article unmasking an anonymous internet blogger in 2009. The Times named the author of the NightJack police blog after winning a High Court ruling that said the blogger, Dc Richard Horton, had no right to anonymity. In its evidence to Mr Justice Eady, The Times said its reporter, Patrick Foster, had deduced the blogger's identity using publicly available information. But it has been reported that Mr Foster, 28, hacked into Mr Horton's email account by guessing his password. On Tuesday, James Harding, the editor of The Times, told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that one of his reporters had hacked into a "third party's" email account in 2009. He said the reporter in question believed he was acting in the public interest but was given a formal written warning for professional misconduct and was later dismissed following an unrelated incident. Mr Harding did not name the reporter or specify which story he had been working on but The Guardian said Mr Foster "openly disclosed" to colleagues that he guessed the password of NightJack's Hotmail account. Mr Foster, who was unavailable for comment last night, has written articles on a freelance basis for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph since being dismissed by The Times. He was suspended from Oxford University in 2004 after he hacked into the university's computer. He said he was simply trying to expose security failings. The Times's decision to identify NightJack was criticised because Dc Horton argued that he was uncovering wrongdoing within the police. He pointed out that if he had gone to the newspaper with information about malpractice it would have protected his identity as a "source." The Times successfully argued that blogging was a public activity that should not carry an expectation of anonymity. Sources close to the case said Mr Justice Eady's decision would not have been any different if he had been told that the blogger's Hotmail account had been hacked. The Times failed to respond to a request for a comment.