By Rob Gibson
Have you heard the one about the journalist, the policeman, the private detective and the soldier?
It may sound like a joke but when these people were charged with serious allegations of leaking sensitive police information, they were not smiling.
On Friday, former Milton Keynes detective sergeant Mark Kearney, Milton Keynes Citizen reporter Sally Murrer, Derek Webb and Lance Corporal Harry Kearney, walked free as a £1 million legal case against them finally collapsed.
Yesterday, at the end of an 18-month ordeal, they announced their intention to launch legal action against Thames Valley Police.
Ms Murrer, 50, walked free after evidence against her was ruled inadmissible after a five day legal battle.
Her barrister, Gavin Millar QC successfully argued that her right to freedom of expression under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mr Millar said that Mark Kearney was a confidential source and the State had no right to covertly record his conversations with Ms Murrer.
Thames Valley Police issued a statement saying it was 'disappointed' that the trial had been dropped, despite the fact that Judge Richard Southwell said that the Force failed to establish an over-riding public interest when forcing the disclosure of Ms Murrer's source.
The relevant stories were revealed at the appeal hearing as local news which posed no threat to national security and in some cases was already in the public domain.
A police statement read: "Thames Valley Police behaved entirely properly in obtaining evidence that Mark Kearney passed information to a journalist."
Yesterday, Mark Kearney, 49, of Jerrards Close, Leighton Buzzard, said: "Thames Valley Police
has not conceded defeat graciously.
"By any respect they were fairly beaten.
"Between us we assembled a fantastic legal team and we were able to pick out all the flaws in the police case.
"Relief is the over-riding emotion at the moment.
"We're going to be taking legal action against Thames Valley for this breach of our rights."
He also voiced his support for the press and the police officers who help the media.
"Providing that the matters aren't crucial or serious then matters which perhaps the police would rather not mention can be made public," Mr Kearney said.
"I think the desire of the State to suppress any news that shows them in a bad light is massive.
"The freedom of the press is paramount in what is supposed to be a democratic society."
Included in their claim against Thames Valley will be questions about the whereabouts of bundles of notebooks belonging to Sally Murrer and diaries belonging to Derek Webb, a private detective from Holly Street, Luton.
Legal representative Mr Charalambous, of Simons Muirhead and Burton, said: "Sally Murrer should never have been prosecuted.
"The safeguards enshrined in law for the protection of journalists have been trampled upon by Thames Valley Police - both at the outset when they chose to bug Sally's conversations under a warrant that failed to mention that she was a journalist and later when she was arrested and brought to a police station.
"Journalists talk to police officers every day about cases, which is precisely how crime stories in newspapers get written.
"Had the case against Sally gone ahead, it would have signalled a lurch towards a police state, a situation which is abhorrent in the minds of right thinking people.
"The police officers who mounted this operation should be called to account for this fundamental attack on the freedom of our country's press."
Ms Murrer said: "The judge's decision is a victory, not simply for me, but for all of this country's journalists.
"I'm extraordinarily grateful for the solidarity shown by the British press, who have all rallied in my defence so amazingly; they have been constant in their help and support, and I could not have survived this ordeal without them."