British officials admit selling secrets to Murdoch's Sun tabloid

LONDON (REUTERS) - A former policeman and an ex-prison officer admitted on Friday to selling information to the Sun, a British tabloid newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, in the first guilty pleas to come out of a huge police investigation into wrongdoing by journalists.

The charges stemmed from an inquiry launched in 2011 into allegations journalists from Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World newspaper had hacked into mobile phone voicemail messages.

That inquiry was later widened to include other activities, including payments to public officials for stories.

The long-running scandal forced the closure of the News of the World and has called into question the judgment of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who was friends with several of Murdoch's senior executives.