New York Post editor Col Allan named in New York prostitution case: report

NEW YORK – We were told last month there’d be big names involved. And if the latest report proves true, the scandal of Soccer Mom madam Anna Gristina, the Scottish-born alleged leader of a prostitution ring, won’t have disappointed us.

The New York Observer reports today that Col Allan, the Australian editor of the right-wing tabloid New York Post, has been named in surveillance recordings from the five-year prostitution investigation.

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The Observer’s Foster Kamer describes Allan as friend of Gristina but does not say in what way Allan is connected to Gristina, how Allan is discussed in evidence, or if this could involve her alleged illegal activities.

But Kamer accuses rival tabloid The New York Daily News of “sitting on the explosive tidbit” because newly appointed Daily News editor Colin Myler was once an associate of Allan’s at The New York Post.

Representatives of the Post and the News declined to comment to The Observer.

Col Allan was the subject of a 2009 lawsuit by a former staffer, alleging harassment and retaliation over her complaints, accused Allan of lewd and sexist behavior, according to The Huffington Post.

Elsewhere in the Rupert Murdoch empire, heads rolled today in London as Scotland Yard’s chief spokesman resigned in the on-going phone-hacking scandal, according to The Associated Press.

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Dick Fedorcio stepped down rather than face disciplinary hearings for awarding a contract to a former executive at News of the World, the newspaper believed to have bribed police for information and invaded the privacy of the subjects of its articles.