Sun reporter admits paying public officials for 24 stories One of the six Sun journalists on trial for allegedly paying backhanders to public officials has admitted that he paid a police officer and a health worker at Broadmoor hospital, but said the subsequent stories were in the public interest. Jamie Pyatt, the paper's Thames Valley district reporter, told jurors he paid for a total of 24 stories from the two public officials. These produced headlines such as "Sonia Sutcliffe in Four Hour Broadmoor Visit," about serial murderer Peter Sutcliffe's wife, and "Milly Cops Quiz White Van Man" and "Mick Seized by 16 Rape Cops," about false allegations against the singer Mick Hucknall. However, Pyatt said he had never received a single complaint about the reports, they were all accurate and he "firmly believed they were in the public interest." The reporter denied "corrupting" the police officer and the Broadmoor health worker, because they had initiated contact with the Sun, not the other way round, which he said knew would have been wrong. Broadmoor houses the most dangerous people in our society. Over the years it's been home to Ronnie and Reggie Kray, Myra Hindley," Pyatt said. [The] Yorkshire Ripper, Cannibal Killer, Soho Bomber, Stockwell Strangler, they are all in there, they are members of public who have committed some of the gravest crimes in this country. He told Kingston crown court on Wednesday that the stories about these criminals were "sanitised" for public consumption but that readers "ought to read about them." They were members of the public who had committed horrific crimes, including murder, rape and child abduction, and that they deserved to be exposed. Asked by his counsel, Richard Kovalevsky QC, if he accepted that the police officer was paid for a certain number of stories Pyatt responded: "I accept he was, yes." Kovalevsky added: "There's no issue between you and the prosecution." "He was paid for stories, yes," replied Pyatt. He said he also accepted that the Broadmoor employee was paid for nine stories. "I think it was unfortunate that they asked for money for these stories, I would rather if their purpose in passing on those stories was purer," he said. Pyatt, 51, of Windsor, has been a journalist on the tabloid for 27 years and is fighting two charges that he conspired with the police officer to commit misconduct in public office between 2002 and 2011, and with the Broadmoor worker between 2007 and 2010. He said he wrote around 10,000 stories in the charge period and that "stories in the charge sheets [provided by the police officer and Broadmoor employee] are a very tiny part of my output for that period." Pyatt told jurors he worked on a very busy patch that was a rich seam for stories; the Queen's residence at Windsor Castle, the Eton public school, the Sandhurst military academy and Heathrow airport were on his doorstep. He said he got "loads" of his stories in pubs and got to know a vast number of sources over his 25 years on the paper before his arrest. Asked about his relationship with the police, he told jurors he was "totally trusted," describing his relationship as "very friendly" and "close-working" until relations between all media and police soured following revelations about News of the World's phone hacking in 2009 and 2010. Pyatt said newspapers were of use to the police and would be used to find new leads and witnesses. We get a phone call from the officer, who we've spoken to, who we've got a photo from, they would like to go interview them themselves. In those days it was a very friendly, close working relationship. He said he had no training at the Sun since he started on the tabloid in 1987 but he knew offering a police officer money was illegal. "I'm certain I've done nothing wrong in the way I've been instructed to do my job by the company," he told jurors. Asked how he could justify payments to the police officer, he said: "I reached the decision that it was not against the law on the grounds I had not made any approach to a police officer and the police officer had made the approach to the newspaper. I always understood from when I joined the newspaper that that was the situation, that you could never make any approach to a police officer to offer money for a story as that would be against the law and would amount to corruption. However, if the police officer made the decision themselves to approach a member of the press, to sell in formation then you had not corrupted that officer.