The PR head of Scotland Yard has resigned after an investigation into the News Corp. hacking scandal led to disciplinary proceedings against him for “gross misconduct” related to his hiring a PR firm run by a former News Corp. exec.
Fedorcio appears before Parliament last July. |
Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the Metropolitan Police in London, was probed by an independent commission for his hiring of PR pro and former News Corp. executive Neil Wallis, who ran PR shop Chamy Media.
He remained on the job since the probe was announced last August but resigned today, effective March 31, after the investigation found that he had a “case to answer” over the PR contract in question, which covered counsel to his office from 2009-10 and was worth the equivalent of about $40K.
“Our investigation found that Mr. Fedorcio has a case to answer in relation to his procurement of the contract for Chamy Media,” Deborah Glass, deputy chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, said in a statement March 29. “Last week the Metropolitan Police Service proposed to initiate proceedings for gross misconduct and I agreed with that proposal."
Glass said that Fedorcio’s resignation eliminates the disciplinary proceedings and she has proposed to publish the investigation report in the next few days.
Scotland Yard issued a brief statement announcing Fedorcio’s departure. “Dick Fedorcio, our director of public affairs for the past 14 years, has taken the decision to leave on 31st March 2012,” the police said. “During that period he has made a very significant contribution to the work of the MPS.”
Wallis is a former executive editor of the now-defunct News Corp. paper News of the World who moved into PR in 2009 with the Outside Organization before setting up Chamy. He was arrested last July in the hacking investigation.