LONDON (AP) — British media say a 60-year-old man arrested on suspicion of phone hacking is Neil Wallis, the former executive editor of the defunct tabloid News of the World.

London police said they arrested a man early Thursday in London but did not name him. The BBC, Sky News and the Press Association said he was Wallis, the paper’s deputy editor between 2003 and 2007.

Wallis served under editor Andy Coulson, who resigned after two employees of the paper were jailed in 2007 for hacking into the voice mails of royal staff.

Wallis became executive editor, left the tabloid in 2009 and is now managing director of the Outside Organization, a leading entertainment PR firm.

His arrest is the ninth in police investigations of phone hacking and bribery of police officers.