Neville Thurlbeck

Neville Thurlbeck (born 7 October 1961) is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting. Before the News of the World Thurlbeck worked as a reporter for the Harrow Observer.

Thurlbeck was educated at Bede Comprehensive School in Sunderland, followed by the University of Lancaster. Thurlbeck spent a few months living in Sudan teaching English in 1984.

In 1998 Thurlbeck was the newspaper journalist who 'outed' the Cabinet Minister Nick Brown as gay. Thurlbeck also broke the story that Jeffrey Archer had committed perjury during his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star. The scoop won Thurlbeck three industry awards including Scoop of the Year 1999 from the London Press Club.

At the turn of the millennium Thurlbeck, under the codename "George", acted as an "unpaid source" for the police. In return he received information from the Police National Computer which principally consisted of the previous convictions of various criminals. In 2000 Thurlbeck and the police officer with whom he worked were cleared of corruption charges with regard to their working relationship.

In 2001 Thurlbeck moved from his position as investigations news editor to become news editor. He held the position for approximately two years before stepping down in 2003 to become chief reporter.

In 2004 Thurlbeck broke a story which alleged footballer David Beckham was having an affair. He was responsible for the exclusive over Max Mosley's private life which resulted in his newspaper being sued, paying £60,000 damages for the paper's breach of his privacy. Mosley later suggested that Thurlbeck's methods were akin to blackmail, with the journalist telling women that "if you don't co-operate we will publish your pictures unpixellated."

Thurlbeck was dismissed from News International in September 2011 in the wake of the News International phone hacking scandal. Thurlbeck says he did not receive the reason for his dismissal from his former employer but from the Metropolitan police. He denies the allegations which led to his sacking and is pursuing a claim of unfair dismissal against News International. Thurlbeck had worked for News of the World for 21 years at the time of his dismissal.

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