Trinity Mirror executive arrested in UK phone-hacking inquiry

LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) - An executive from Britain's Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI.L - news) newspaper group was arrested on Wednesday in connection with a police investigation into allegations of phone-hacking by journalists on the publisher's papers.

London police said detectives from Operation Golding, an investigation into hacking at the Mirror group, had arrested a 47-year-old journalist "on suspicion of conspiracy to unlawfully intercept communications".

Trinity Mirror confirmed a member of staff had been detained and a person familiar with the situation confirmed it was Lee Harpin, the agenda editor for the group's national titles.

The arrest is the fifth to have been made by officers from Operation Golding.

Shares (Frankfurt: DI6.F - news) in Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror titles, fell 6 percent when the news broke.

In May, eight mostly celebrity victims of phone-hacking won a total of 1.2 million pounds ($1.9 million) in damages from the newspaper group.

It was the first civil lawsuit against Mirror titles since the scandal of phone-hacking, where journalists illegally listened to private voicemail messages to generate exclusive stories, hit the headlines in 2011. (Reporting by Michael Holden and Kate Holton; editing by Stephen Addison)