UK journalist won't be charged in hacking scandal

LONDON (AP) — British authorities say a journalist won't be charged in connection with the phone hacking scandal.

Neil Wallis, former deputy editor of now-defunct tabloid News of the World, was arrested in 2011, becoming one of the first prominent journalists arrested in the case.

He said Friday on Twitter that prosecutors told his lawyers he wouldn't be charged. He said his family had endured "21 months of hell" since his arrest.

Prosecutors said Friday there was insufficient evidence for the prosecution of a journalist who had been arrested. They didn't identify Wallis by name, as is customary.

Wallis and other journalists along with police and public officials have been arrested in the scandal, which started when tabloid reporters were found to have hacked into voicemails left for aides to the royal family.