UK Hacking Scandal Causes Another Scotland Yard Resignation

(The Blaze/AP)- London Mayor Boris Johnson said Monday that Scotland Yard's assistant commissioner resigned after being told he'd be suspended, in the second high-profile police department casualty over the quickly spreading phone hacking scandal in as many days.

John Yates made a decision two years ago to not re-open police inquiries into electronic eavesdropping of voice mail messages, saying he did not believe there was any new evidence to consider. He has said in recent weeks he regrets that decision.

Yates' boss, police commissioner Paul Stephenson, resigned Sunday over his ties to Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor who has been arrested over the scandal.

Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year and now say they have the names of 3,700 potential victims.

Stephenson, the police chief, resigned Sunday over his ties to Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor who has been arrested over the scandal. Stephenson said he had nothing to do with the earlier apparently flawed phone hacking inquiry or Wallis, but was resigning to allow his agency to focus on the London 2012 Olympics instead of leadership changes.

London mayor Boris Johnson said Monday that Yates had questions to answer about his own links with Wallis, and added that Yates resigned after being told he would be suspended pending an ethics investigation.

Johnson has said both Stephenson and Yates made the right decision in resigning.