3 Arrested in British Tapping Inquiry

LONDON — British police arrested three men Tuesday, including a newspaper section editor, in an investigation that began with complaints from Prince Charles’ office about possible phone-tapping, police and the newspaper said.

Police said they did not believe the phones of any members of the royal family had been tapped. But the calls of other public figures may have been intercepted, raising potential security issues, police said. They refused to say whose phone may have been tapped.

And police did not identify those who were arrested, but the News of the World tabloid said Clive Goodman, editor of its section on royalty, was among them.

Hayley Barlow, a spokeswoman for the weekly newspaper, declined to comment further.

The investigation was prompted by complaints from Charles’ Clarence House office to the police’s royalty protection department.

“It is focused on alleged repeated security breaches within telephone networks over a significant period of time and the potential impact this may have on protective security around a number of individuals,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Charles’ office declined to comment on the arrests.

Police said they had arrested three men, 35, 48 and 50. All were arrested at their homes in London, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

Police said they had searched two of the residences, along with business addresses in the Wapping, Sutton and Chelsea neighborhoods.

Anti-terrorism officers are leading the investigation, and police are working with phone companies to identify all those whose conversations were tapped, they said.

Charles was the victim of an embarrassing eavesdropping effort in 1989, when he and his now-wife Camilla were recorded having a sexually explicit phone conversation while he was still married to Princess Diana.

The Sun tabloid later published the transcripts, and also ran excerpts of a conversation between Diana and a man who affectionately called her “Squidgy.”