Student hits national headlines over police informants story

University of Portsmouth journalism student Aoife Morgan has seen her investigation into police informants go national.

She had been tasked by tutor, Paul Foster, with following up responses to his Freedom of Information requests.

Each police force had been asked how much it spent on paying informants. Aoife analysed the responses and discovered the total cost was £13m over five years, with the Metropolitan Police topping the list.

For her article, Aoife also tracked down a former undercover police officer to discuss the issue.

The resulting story was sent to the investigation units of JPI Media and Newsquest. It then appeared in national titles including the Scotsman, Daily Record, Scottish Sun and Daily Mirror, while localised versions were published in Yorkshire Evening Post, Swindon Advertiser, Wigan Post, among many others.

Aoife said: ‘I am delighted that my story has done well and is published in so many outlets. It was really exciting to work on such an interesting piece.’

Paul added: ‘This exercise demonstrates to the students how a simple idea and Freedom of Information request can achieve widespread coverage.

‘Aoife did well to analyse a large amount of data and find a source to give an expert view on the issue.’

It comes after another University of Portsmouth student, Eloise Hill, saw her story on Sarah’s Law hit the national headlines.

The third-year undergraduate had been tasked by her tutor to write a news feature based on Freedom of Information responses he had received about the ‘Sarah’s Law’ scheme.

Officially known as the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, the legislation allows anyone to ask their local police force if someone has a record of committing crimes against children.

The FoI requests — sent to police forces across the UK — revealed there had been 16,900 applications to the Sarah’s Law scheme since it began in 2011, with 1,400 parents being told that an individual with access to their child or children is a sex offender.

The story was featured in The Sun, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail, while localised versions were also sent out to local newspapers.