A LANCASHIRE detective who was revealed as the anonymous police blogger ‘NightJack’ had his emails hacked by a national newspaper, it has emerged.

The Times, which overturned a privacy injunction to name East Lancashire DC Richard Horton as the man behind the popular blog in June, 2009, admitted hacking his account.

The newspaper argued it was in the public interest to unmask the anonymous blogger because some blog entries contained confidential details of cases being worked on by Mr Horton.

But the paper claimed its reporters used “a legitimate process” to deduce his identity based on sources and information on the internet.

However, Labour MP and anti phone-hacking campaigner Tom Watson has called for the police to investigate The Times.

DC Horton, who was a force major incident team officer based at Greenbank, was given a written warning by Lancashire Police after he was revealed as the critically acclaimed secret blogger.

Mr Horton’s blogs, which were awarded the Orwell Prize for political writing, offered a behind-the-scenes look at front-line policing and advised those under police investigation to “complain about every officer . . . show no respect to the legal system or anybody working in it”.

People and locations were changed to offer a veil of anonymity but some, including those relating to child sex offences, could be traced back to genuine prosecutions, the paper said.

Mr Horton deleted all his blog entries. He is now based in Southern division at Leyland Police Station.

At the time the force said a full internal investigation had taken place and that DC Horton accepted his ‘public commentary’ had ‘fallen short of the standards of professional behaviour’ expected.

Rachel Baines, chairman of the Lancashire Police Federation, said: “I understand it was his personal email that was hacked into and not his constabulary email so there is no security issue for the force.

"It is a personal matter for the officer.”