The Metropolitan Police have expressed their "great disappointment" at a senior detective convicted of trying to sell confidential information.

Detective Chief Inspector April Casburn, 53, of Hatfield Peverel, offered to leak information to the now defunct News of the World newspaper in return for cash.

A jury at Southwark Crown Court found her guilty of misconduct in a public office today.

A Metropolitan Police statement said: "It is a great disappointment that a Detective Chief Inspector in the Counter Terrorism Command should have abused her position in this way.

"There is no place for corrupt officers or staff in the MPS and we hope this prosecution demonstrates that leaking - or in this case trying to sell - confidential information to journalists for personal gain, will not be tolerated.

"There may be occasions when putting certain information into the public domain - so-called whistle-blowing - can be justified. This was not one of them.

"In this case, DCI Casburn proactively approached the News of the World, the very newspaper being investigated, to make money. She betrayed the service and let down her colleagues - the hard-working honest police officers who make up the vast majority of the MPS.

"Fortunately this type of behaviour is rare but we hope today's verdict shows the public can have confidence that the MPS holds itself to account.

"This is the first prosecution to result from the phone-hacking and linked inquiries (Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta).

"The evidence of this officer's wrong-doing was provided to police by News Corporation's Management and Standards Committee and the investigation was supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission."

Greg McGill, a senior lawyer for the Criminal Prosecution Service, said: "DCI Casburn has been found guilty of misconduct in public office - not only did she seek to divulge confidential information, she sought to leak details of a case to the very newspaper under investigation.

"This is a very serious offence and the jury has today agreed that DCI Casburn's actions were criminal."