A SWINDON civil servant has been jailed for selling information about Army disciplinary investigations and sex scandals to The Sun.

Bettina Jordan-Barber, 42, from Shrivenham, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, in January, after pocketing £100,000 for giving scoops to the tabloid newspaper.

The mother-of-two, who is married to a serving Army officer, Nigel Jordan-Barber, admitted conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office between January 2004 and January 2012 and was sentenced at the Old Bailey.

These details were released yesterday following the end of a trial of her contact, John Kay, the Sun’s chief reporter, and three of his colleagues.

They were acquitted of paying a public official for stories.

The court heard that, Jordan-Barber, who worked for the Ministry of Defence in Andover, became Kay’s key military contact, feeding him stories before they were released to the press.

Jordan-Barber’s job saw her preparing briefing notes which would be passed to the press office.

Michael Parroy QC, prosecuting, said: “The overall effect was that in many cases people were quite seriously and professionally damaged as a result of the evidence being revealed to the press at a wholly inappropriate stage.”

Jordan-Barber received 35 payments and was arrested in February 2012 and charged in November that year.

She pleaded guilty to the charge in March 2013.

Patrick Gibbs QC, defending, said: “She did not go looking for Mr Kay. She met him socially. She was not the procurer, she was the procured. She thought of him as a friend. She would not have got into these sorts of conversations with someone she would not have thought of as a friend.”

As well as sentencing her to 12 months behind bars, judge Justice Saunders made a confiscation order of £113,000 to cover the amount Jordan-Barber received from the newspaper – taking into account inflation.

He said: “The Ministry of Defence say that they are not only entitled to control the flow of information to the press but it is necessary for the military to do so in the interests of security and the preservation of morale within the forces.

“While it is not suggested that any of the stories she leaked affected security, it is clear from the evidence I have seen that they are very likely to have affected morale.

“If a story was going to come out which would lead to a great deal of press interest, the Army wished to have time to properly prepare those affected for publicity which would be unwelcome to them and may be intrusive.

“Ironically, Mrs Jordan-Barber is suffering, and has for some considerable time suffered the effects of such intrusive publicity and she has found it extremely painful.”

The MoD wants to draw a line under the incident.

An MoD spokesman said: “Civil servants working for the Ministry of Defence do so proudly and are expected to uphold the highest standards of professionalism and integrity.

“The department takes any issues of a criminal nature extremely seriously and is satisfied that justice has been done in the case of Bettina Jordan-Barber, who no longer works for the MoD.”