Dylan Hartley's disciplinary record should not prevent him being appointed England captain, according to the head of English rugby Ian Ritchie.

The Northampton hooker is expected to be named skipper by new head coach Eddie Jones on Monday.
Hartley has been banned for over a year in total during his career.
But Rugby Football Union chief executive Ritchie said he had "paid the penalty", adding "I don't think it precludes him [from being captain]".
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live, Ritchie added: "It is primarily a matter for the head coach, and I'm not going to hinder that in any way.
"It's a matter of balance and perspective, and Dylan I'm sure brings many positives as well to the set-up."
Ritchie confirmed the RFU is monitoring the case of young flanker Sam Underhill, who plays for Welsh region Ospreys.
The 19-year-old is English and is on the radar of England boss Jones, but is ineligible to be picked for his country while playing outside the English Premiership.
Underhill - who has captained England at Under-18 level - is studying at Cardiff University and is contracted to Bridgend and the Ospreys.
However, Ritchie says Underhill's case may be viewed differently to the likes of those who play in France, and that he may be treated as a special case given his age.
"I think we need to look at that, and we are having some discussions about that," Ritchie added.
"We want to keep people who have played in our age-grade teams, as he has. We maybe need to look at whether it is different for elite squads compared to development squads."
Ritchie says French club Toulon's bid to join the Premiership is a "long shot".
The Toulon president Mourad Boudjelall has written to Premiership Rugby this week about the prospect.
The RFU council would have to approve any change to England's elite competition, and Ritchie believes there are numerous obstacles in Toulon's way.
"I think it's a challenging proposition," Ritchie said.
"I would think it's a long shot, but having said that it's for others to discuss as well, and we've not really sat down and had a proper, considered conversation about it yet.
"But in some ways it's interesting Mr Boudjellal thinks that playing rugby in England is good for Toulon, so we should look at that as a positive."
Despite England's disappointing performance at the World Cup, the RFU says it is on course to meet legacy targets.
Early evidence shows participation is increasing, including 8,000 adults returning to the game during and after the tournament, and the RFU has launched programmes to get more schools and clubs playing the sport, and will also provide 100 new artificial pitches across the country.
"We really are trying to use the opportunity the Rugby World Cup gave us to grow the profile of the game - and participation in the game - across the country. The hard work has started for us now as we try and maximise the opportunity," said the RFU's rugby development director Steve Grainger.


Responding to the latest unemployment figures, Leave campaigner Iain Duncan Smith said: "Our labour market is thriving, but it's notable that more than three quarters of the rise in employment over the last year has come from people born abroad."

The claim: Iain Duncan Smith says that more than three quarters of the rise in employment in the last year has come from people born abroad.
Reality Check verdict: The latest figures support this. You could also look at the number of non-UK nationals (rather than everyone born abroad, which includes British citizens). They account for 56% of the rise.
The figures suggest that people born abroad account for 80% of the rise in employment - as Mr Duncan Smith says, more than three quarters.
But the figure for the number of people born abroad includes UK nationals who were born in other countries.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also produces figures for non-UK nationals working in the UK, which suggests 56% of the increase in employment may be attributed to non-UK nationals.
In the context of the referendum the broader point the Leave Campaign has been making is that there's been a big increase in the proportion of people working in the UK who are EU nationals.
The proportion of UK workers who are non-UK EU nationals has indeed increased considerably.
In the first three months of this year, about 6.8% of UK workers were non-UK EU nationals. Five years ago that figure was 4.5% and 10 years ago it was 2.6%.
If you look at the numbers behind that, at the moment there are 2.15 million EU nationals working in the UK. Five years ago it was 1.33 million and 10 years ago it was 758,000.
Read more: The facts behind claims in the EU debate


A man jailed for eight years after killing a scaffolder could face "further punishment" after posting on Facebook while in prison.

Dean Doggett, 26, of Tonypandy, Rhondda Cynon Taff, was jailed for the manslaughter of 42-year-old Wayne Letherby, also of Tonypandy.
A HM Prison Service spokesman said "immediate action" was taken and his online account shut down.
"Prisoners are banned from using mobile phones and social media," he added.
The prison is investigating the incident and has placed Doggett in segregation.
Jamie Leyshon, 26, of Penygraig, was also sentenced to eight years for the attack while Kylie Thomas, 25, of Penygraig, was sentenced to one year for violent disorder.


The Football League's least in-form team throwing away a two-goal lead, a new set of foreign owners seeing their club play for the first time and the worst possible way to make your debut.

BBC Sport brings you the five things you may have missed from another the thrill-a-minute Saturday in the Football League.
Some say 2-0 is the most dangerous scoreline in football - a lead big enough to prompt relaxation, but far from insurmountable - and Colchester fans will probably agree.
Going into their trip to Bury, the U's had not won a league game since 20 October, a run of 17 games.
So when they went 2-0 up inside the first 20 minutes, thanks to goals from Chris Porter and Gavin Massey, it looked as though they might be starting to claw their way back from the foot of League One.
But Tom Eastman was sent off for two bookings, and the floodgates did not just open, they were blown off their hinges.
Ryan Lowe pulled one back immediately after the red card before the Shakers hit four goals in 11 second-half minutes, including a hat-trick for Andrew Tutte, as the gap between Colchester and League One safety increased to 10 points.
"I'm sure they [the young players] will be better for the experience, even though it's a tough one to learn from," Colchester boss Kevin Keen, whose only win as boss came against Charlton in the FA Cup, told BBC Essex.
"I can't feel sorry for myself, I'll just keep working hard. It's about the club and the players."
It might be all going wrong at Colchester, but the team directly below them in the Football League standings cannot do anything wrong.
After being endorsed by basketball legend Shaquille O'Neill this week, Northampton Town now boast a 10-point lead at the top of League Two following a club record ninth-successive league win.
Danny Rose netted his first goal for the Cobblers since a deadline-day move from Oxford United to seal victory against notoriously hard-to-beat Wycombe.
Surely promotion is a slam dunk now for Northampton?
Lloyd Doyley. He's not really a household name outside Hertfordshire, but after spending 14 years at Watford, he left the Hornets in the summer.
It took the 33-year-old until this week to find a new club, when Neil Warnock brought him and fellow free agent Paddy Kenny to Rotherham United.
Kenny was on the bench for the 2-0 loss at Burnley, and Doyley might have wished he was sat next to him as the Jamaica international gave away a penalty 27 minutes into his debut.
The Millers went on to lose 2-0, meaning Warnock is still looking for his first win since replacing Neil Redfearn as manager earlier this month.
A new boss who was smiling was Derby County's Darren Wassall.
After Paul Clement was surprisingly sacked earlier this month, 47-year-old Wassall was thrust into the limelight from the relative obscurity of the Rams' academy.
He lost his first game in charge during the week when Championship promotion hopefuls Derby went down 1-0 at home to relegation-threatened MK Dons.
It looked like he might lose his second as well, but his men scored three times in the final 10 minutes to win 3-1 at Brentford and chalk up Derby's first victory since Boxing Day to lift them to fifth.
Until this week the closest Bristol Rovers had been associated with Jordan was when Katie Price drove out of town on the M32.
But this week the men from the Mem were watched by the man from Amman for the first time, as new club's new Jordanian President Wael Al-Qadi cast his eye over his new acquisition.
His family have taken a 92% stake in the Pirates, with hopes of building a new ground and finally leaving the Memorial Stadium.
And he will no doubt have been pleased with what he saw, as Rovers came from a goal down to beat Morecambe 2-1 and move into the League Two play-off places.
Rovers had won just one of their previous five league games, so perhaps their new owner is a lucky omen.


The home of poet Hedd Wyn has been secured for the nation by the Snowdonia National Park Authority.

Yr Ysgwrn is a Grade II* listed building near Trawsfynydd and houses the bard's famous 'Black Chair' posthumously awarded to him in 1917 for his poem Yr Arwr (The Hero).
Hedd Wyn had entered his poem to the National Eisteddfod 1917 but did not live to know he had won.
The house is open to the public by appointment.
A heritage centre and agricultural unit could be developed on the site of his home.
The house was secured with grants from the Welsh government and the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), and will be looked after by the Snowdonia National Park Authority.
Source: BBC Hall of Fame
Wales' First Minister, Carwyn Jones, said he was delighted to announce the place had been safeguarded on St David's Day.
"Hedd Wyn, his work and his tragic death give him a special place in both the history and culture of our nation," he said.
"It is all the more poignant as we approach the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and we remember the sacrifices made by so many," he added.
Had the National Eisteddfod been held at its usual time of year in August the bard might have learned of his success, but in 1917 the festival was held in September.
Dr Manon Williams the NHMF trustee for Wales called securing Yr Ysgwrn's future a very important project.
"Like so many, Hedd Wyn paid the ultimate price and came to symbolise the loss of an entire generation," she said.
"His poetry, together with other writing inspired by his death, stands as a poignant testament to the culture of his age," she added.
The house had been looked after by Hedd Wyn's nephew, Gerald Williams.
He said he had promised his grandmother "a long time ago" that he would keep the door open as a way of "paying respect for the bravery and success of my uncle".
"By transferring Yr Ysgwrn to the cautious care of the park authority I know that my promise to my grandmother will be kept and respected and that Yr Ysgwrn and the Gadair Ddu will stay together as an unit," he added.
Depending on further grant aid the park authority would like to develop a heritage centre which will focus on the life of Hedd Wyn, WWI, poets and writers from the period, social life in rural Wales at the turn of the 20th Century, life on a mountain farm, biodiversity and sustainable land management practice.
Around 3,000 people visit the house each year, by appointment only.
This will continue for at least the next four years, when the park authority plans to finalise future plans.


Fans of World of Warcraft are set to launch a server that lets people play the game as it was 10 years ago.

In early 2016, the same fans faced legal action from WoW's creator, Blizzard, which caused the shutdown of a similar service.
An outcry over the shutdown led Blizzard to halt legal action and start talks about running legacy servers.
But the WoW fans are starting their own server rather than waiting for Blizzard's own legacy support system.
WoW fans will be able to sign up for an account and start playing on the Elysium server on 17 December.
It uses code initially developed for the Nostalrius server that, at its peak, had more than 150,000 active players.
Since it debuted in 2004, World of Warcraft has changed through the addition of many expansions.
Legacy servers such as Nostalrius seek to preserve the game in its "classic" form before most expansions were released.
World of Warcraft is an online multi-player game in which players explore the vast landscape of Azeroth, complete quests and interact with other gamers.
In April, Blizzard threatened legal action against Nostalrius, saying that letting the server run would undermine its claim to the intellectual property used in the official game.
More than 250,000 people then signed a petition calling for Nostalrius to be resurrected.
But rather than allow that, Blizzard met the developers for Nostalrius and signalled it was willing to talk about ways to preserve earlier versions of the game.
Nostalrius's developers halted plans to release the code for their legacy server while Blizzard worked on its own system.
But with no sign of that official legacy service appearing, the Nostalrius code, and many of its developers, has been transferred to the Elysium project, which will run the server.
Anyone who used to have an account on Nostalrius will be able to move it to Elysium.
"We all share a single bond that unites us; a love for vanilla World of Warcraft," wrote the Elysium project on its web page.
Blizzard has not commented on the decision to create the Elysium server.


Strong growth in spending by consumers helped to drive the UK economy ahead of the Brexit vote, official figures show.

Consumer spending in the April to June period grew by 0.9% from the previous quarter, the fastest pace since 2014.
A rise in business investment also helped growth, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed.
The ONS kept its estimate for UK economic growth at 0.6% for the second quarter, unchanged from the  initial reading.
"Our survey returns, which include the period leading up to and immediately following the referendum, show no sign so far of uncertainty having significantly affected investment or GDP," said ONS chief economist Joe Grice.
Business investment increased by a stronger-than-expected 0.5% in the quarter having fallen in the first three months of the year.
However, the UK's widening trade deficit was a drag on growth during the April-to-June period.
Thomas Laskey, from Aberdeen Asset Management, said the ONS figures showed business investment was "fairly resilient" despite the uncertainty in the run-up to the referendum.
"This is the number that many investors are keeping their eye on, given how sensitive it may be to Brexit.
"The Bank of England significantly lowered its forecasts for business investment in the recent Inflation Report and Mark Carney has been pessimistic about the outlook."
Data released since the Brexit vote in 23 June has been mixed. Some business surveys suggested there had been a sharp slowdown in activity in the immediate aftermath of the referendum, but retail sales figures for July, released last week, were stronger than expected.
Many economists have predicted a marked slowdown in the UK economy following the referendum.
Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said that while he still had "serious concerns over the UK growth outlook, we are a little less pessimistic than we were in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote".
However, he added that it was "likely to be some considerable time before the economy again expands anything like 0.6% quarter-on-quarter".
"We suspect that the UK's vote to leave the European Union in the 23 June referendum will increasingly weigh down on UK economic activity over the coming months."
Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, said that "an uncertainty-driven slowdown still seems likely".
However, he added: "With a number of recent surveys from the CBI and others showing bouncebacks from post-vote lows, strong official retail sales numbers for July, and the support offered by the package of measures announced by the Bank of England, predictions that the economy will fall into recession look unduly pessimistic."


Novak Djokovic won his first match under new coach Andre Agassi, while Rafael Nadal took a first step towards his 10th title at the French Open.

Defending champion Djokovic, who split with his coaching team last month, beat Spain's Marcel Granollers 6-3 6-4 6-2.
Asked about Agassi, the Serb said: "He has a lot to share with me outside and inside of the tennis lines. I'm really enjoying it so far."
Nadal saw off Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-1 6-4 6-1 with little trouble.
"Always at the start, I'm happy for the victory," said the Spaniard. "It was not an easy opponent in the first round, obviously.
"He's an uncomfortable opponent that already had some good victories this year. I came on court with a lot of respect."
Elsewhere, Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic beat Belgium's Steve Darcis 6-3 6-4 6-2.
Seventh seed Marin Cilic is also through after he won 6-3 6-3 6-3 against Ernests Gulbis.
But ninth seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, who beat Djokovic to win the Italian Open, will have to return on Tuesday to continue his match against Spain's Fernando Verdasco after rain and failing light brought an end to their contest with the score tied at one set all.
Djokovic, 30, was out early on Philippe Chatrier Court practising under the watchful eye of new coach Agassi, and he returned a few hours later to get their first win on the board.
It was hardly vintage Djokovic, with the second seed making 29 unforced errors and falling to convert 12 break points.
He needed eight chances just to clinch the second set as he eventually made it through after two hours and 27 minutes of hard work in sweltering conditions.
For Agassi it was a successful, if not entirely comfortable, return to the court where he completed his career Grand Slam in 1999.
At one point there was a chance to catch up with old rival Boris Becker, the man he replaced as Djokovic's coach, that partnership producing six Grand Slam titles.
The Las Vegan is only scheduled to stay in Paris until the end of this week before he has to leave for other prior engagements.
"I'm going to try to use the time spent with him as best as I can, as best as we can," said Djokovic. "So far plenty of information, plenty of things to kind of process.
"I think this is exactly what I need at this moment, a person like him that understands the transitions as a tennis player and as a person as well, going through these kind of lifestyle and certain choices that you make, how that affects you later on."
Nadal, 30, was up against the crowd as much as his opponent as he took on Frenchman Paire on the lively Suzanne Lenglen Court.
The fourth seed was himself given a huge ovation as his list of title wins stretching back to 2005 was read out, and he dominated for the most part.
An unexpected rash of errors early in the second set allowed Paire into the match, and the world number 45 had a break point to lead 5-3, but Nadal snuffed out the danger and powered home.
"For me, it's important to serve a little bit better than I did today," said Nadal.
"The rest of the things I am happy with."


Britain's Jonathan Brownlee made it back-to-back wins in the 2015 World Triathlon Series with victory on the Gold Coast in Australia.

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Brownlee clocked one hour 46 minutes 51 seconds to beat Mario Mola by 18 seconds with fellow Spaniard Javier Gomez a further 10 seconds back.
"I thought 'let's be aggressive', I think it hurts the guys," said the 24-year-old, who also won in New Zealand.
USA's Gwen Jorgensen won the women's event for her eighth victory in a row.
Brownlee, whose brother Alistair is still injured, won in Auckland last month after finishing fifth in the season-opener in Abu Dhabi.
He added: "On the run I knew they would take time out of me on the first lap, then I thought 'be steady, and if I run 30:30 it's going to take a great run for them to catch me', and fortunately they didn't."
Brownlee leads the rankings with 2,186 points, 219 ahead of Gomez.
The next event is in Cape Town in South Africa, where Jonathan will not compete but Alistair hopes to return.
In the women's race, Sarah True was second and Katie Zaferes finished third to make it an all-American podium. Britain's Lucy Hall was 25th and Jessica Learmonth was 30th.
World champion Jorgensen served a 15-second penalty after the cycling leg for not racking her bike properly but dominated the final run leg to win her third event of 2015.
"One, two, three for Team USA, I don't think you can get any better standing on the podium and looking over and seeing the other two girls and hearing the national anthem," she said.
Watch highlights on Sunday, 12 April from 13:20 BST on BBC Two.


A driver who ran over and killed a child actor and his aunt during a police pursuit has admitted manslaughter.

Joshua Dobby, 23, knocked over Makayah McDermott, 10, and Rozanne Cooper, 34, in Penge, south London, on 31 August.
He had previously admitted causing death by dangerous driving but denied manslaughter.
Sentencing will take place on 10 March. He changed his plea while appearing at the Old Bailey via videolink.
Dobby had told the court he acknowledged the "pain and suffering" he had caused.
Makayah had recently auditioned for a part in a television series.
His agent Sam Brown described him as "an extremely talented young actor" and "joy to be around".
Dobby also pleaded guilty to causing serious injury to Makayah's sister by dangerous driving.
When he first appeared before magistrates in Bromley last September, the court heard Dobby had a "very long previous criminal record" including aggravated vehicle-taking.
He was brought before the courts just two months before the deaths of Makayah and his aunt and was on licence when he killed them, the court was told.
The court heard Dobby had been advised to expect a "severe sentence".


A mother has been refused permission to place a fairytale castle headstone on her daughter's grave because it wasn't in keeping with a parish church's "historic" appearance.

Penni Hall's daughter, Alycia Mckee, died last year aged 18.
Ms Hall had wanted to place the "princess" gravestone at St Margaret and St Andrews Church in Exmouth.
But a spokesman for the Diocese of Exeter said it "fell outside the standard headstone" regulations.
Ms Hall accused church officials of being set in their ways and "not very Christian" in their approach to the memorial.
She also accused the diocese of "making money out of people's grief" after she was told she could appeal the decision at a cost of £249.
"I have this doubt in my mind that they won't sway, they will be stubborn," she said.
"Just because it is the rules set centuries ago, it is time things moved on and I hope they will see their decision is wrong and be more lenient."
Ms Hall has launched a petition calling on the diocese to change their mind.
The diocese spokesman said regulations were in place to keep churchyards as places of peace and beauty for everyone to enjoy.
He said: "A memorial that might be suitable for an urban, civic cemetery may look out place near an historic church building.
"The diocese has a responsibility to make sure that the churchyard remains an appropriate setting for a parish church for the next several hundred years."
Alycia, who had Down's syndrome and suffered from heart problems, died from multiple organ failure.


A plan of Wales' needs from Brexit talks is "not a list of demands", Carwyn Jones and Leanne Wood have said.

The first minister and Plaid Cymru leader will reveal their plan for exiting the European Union on Monday.
In a joint letter in the Sunday Times, the pair said they would work together to "secure the best deal for Wales".
Welsh Conservatives leader, Andrew RT Davies, said Brexit was a chance for the UK and Wales to become "global leaders in trade".
The UK government previously warned the Welsh Government must not undermine Brexit talks.
Writing in the newspaper, Mr Jones and Ms Wood said: "The challenge we all face now is ensuring that as we prepare to leave the EU we secure the best possible deal for Wales. Together, we intend to rise to that challenge."
They said their Brexit plan for Wales would form a "sensible starting point for negotiations" for all parts of the UK.
The white paper - to be published on Monday - centres around Wales' continued access to the single market once the UK leaves the EU.
Mr Davies said: "What Wales needs is leadership and optimism. Carwyn Jones and his government's reaction to Brexit has careered from doom-mongering and denial to dithering and confusion."
The document, which sets out Wales' immigration needs and demands over funding, follows an agreement from Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats.
Welsh Labour and Plaid previously clashed over access to the single market following the Leave vote on 23 June.
Plaid agreed a limited deal after May's assembly election to allow Mr Jones, whose party won 29 of 60 seats in the May election, to be re-installed as first minister.
The pair criticised Theresa May, saying her speech earlier this week had done little to "inspire confidence" in the UK's exit strategy after the prime minister said the UK had to leave the single market.
But Mr Jones and Ms Wood wrote that remaining in the single market was "so important for the future prosperity of Wales and all of us who live here".
"People voted to leave but they didn't vote to undermine thousands of jobs, two thirds of Welsh exports or foreign direct investment into Wales."
The letter follows the first meeting of the joint ministerial committee, set up by the UK government to give devolved administrations a platform to voice their views on Brexit.
Mr Davies said the Welsh economy had become "too reliant" on the EU, but there was an opportunity to "take advantage of the new US president's willingness to cut a trade deal with the UK".
Mr Jones and Ms Wood repeated calls that the UK government should listen to the devolved nations' needs ahead of triggering Article 50, which will start the two-year formal process of leaving the EU.
"This white paper is not just a shopping list of demands from Wales but a sensible starting point for negotiations that should deliver for all parts of the United Kingdom," they wrote.
The pair also stressed a need for a "fair and clearly understandable" immigration system and said funding received by Wales from Brussels for industries including agriculture must continue.
"We were told during the referendum that Wales would not lose a penny of its current funding as a result of leaving the EU and we intend to ensure that the UK government fulfils this promise," they wrote.
"We won't stand for Wales to be weakened as a result of Brexit, and believe that our plan is the best route to securing a good deal for our country."


By the genteel standards of the House of Lords, it was a particularly acrimonious debate, with coalition tensions laid bare.

It ended with a government defeat on a cross-party amendment to delay the review of parliamentary constituencies until 2018 - i.e. after the next general election.
For the first time, Liberal Democrat ministers voted against their coalition counterparts and the amendment was carried by 69 votes.
The prime minister now has to decide whether or not to try to reverse the vote in the House of Commons. With Nick Clegg having told Liberal Democrat MPs to vote against boundary changes, it does not look as if it will end happily for the Conservatives.
At stake are the Conservatives' plans to cut the number of MPs from 650 to 600 overall - from 40 to 30 in Wales, where constituencies tend to have fewer votes. It's been suggested the review could deliver 20 seats to the Tories, which could be crucial to their hopes of winning the next election.
Tory MP Glyn Davies spent an hour in the Lords watching the debate and said the result "will really put cat among pigeons". He tweeted: "Question "Will gov't reverse Lords amendment on constituency boundary reform"? 69 a big majority. Give confidence to Commons opposition."
There has been speculation that David Cameron might seek a deal with the smaller parties at Westminster, but the SNP said: "There have been no discussions and no deal will be done on the boundary review.
"Given the fall-out and petty score-settling between the Tories and Lib Dems, people will wonder if this whole process has been a waste of time and waste of money."
Plaid Cymru - whose three MPs form a joint parliamentary party with the SNP six - appears equally reluctant to deal unless the UK government offers a massive transfer of powers from Westminster to Cardiff Bay.
Even then, barring another U-turn from the Lib Dems, it is hard to see the maths stacking up. No wonder the Conservatives are choosing their candidates for 2015 on existing boundaries.
UPDATE: Downing Street say the government (the Conservative half, at least) will try to overturn the vote when the legislation returns to the Commons. A spokesman said: "The PM remains of the view that we should have fewer MPs to cut the cost of politics, and more equal size constituencies so that people's votes have more equal weight."
But comments from Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg suggest the prime minister will struggle to win the vote. He told the BBC:  "We are not voting them down; what we are saying is there is going to be a delay of five years.
"We are leaving the boundary changes on the statute book but we are saying that we should miss a beat and do it in the next parliament not this one."


A man has appeared in court after being charged with the murder of a woman in Monmouthshire.

The body of Georgina Symonds, 25, was found at an address in Usk at about 05:50 GMT on Wednesday.
Peter Morgan, 53, of Abergavenny, was arrested and subsequently charged with murder.
He spoke only to confirm his name and address when he appeared at Newport Magistrates' Court on Friday.
Mr Morgan was remanded in custody until his next court appearance on 18 January.
Meanwhile, Miss Symonds' mother, Deborah, paid tribute to her "beautiful daughter".
"She was the light of my life," she added.
"The family are heartbroken and she will be greatly missed."


A cyber attack on the French television network TV5 Monde may have been carried out by Russian-based hackers, police believe.

Jihadist propaganda was posted on the station's website in April by individuals claiming to represent Islamic State.
A police investigation is now focussing on a group of Russian hackers called APT28, according to French media.
The group has tried to hack the White House in the past, L'Express reports.
It has also targeted the computer systems of Nato members, Russian dissidents and Ukrainian activists, according to the newspaper.
A judicial source told AFP that investigators were narrowing the search by probing the IP addresses of computers used in the attack.
TV5 Monde was forced to broadcast pre-recorded programmes after the hack, which it described as "unprecedented in the history of television".
A message warning French troops to stay away from Islamic State was published on the station's Facebook page.
The hackers also posted documents purporting to be ID cards of relatives of French soldiers involved in anti-IS operations.


One in four women are transferred from midwife-led units to consultants because of complications when giving birth, an investigation found.

NHS bosses in England say stand-alone midwife units are as safe as doctor-led care for low-risk deliveries.
But the Birth Trauma Association said there was not enough data to support the claim for first-time mothers.
One woman told the BBC of an hour-long transfer from a midwife-led unit to another hospital.
BBC England's data unit contacted 139 hospital trusts, receiving information back about 128 midwife-led units in England under the Freedom of Information Act.
Get the data here
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It found:
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends midwife-led units for low-risk births, which is applicable to 45% of women.
It began to do so in December 2014 and said the rate of interventions - such as the use of forceps or epidurals - was lower and the "outcome for the baby is no different compared with an obstetric unit".
The Royal College of Midwives says women receive more personal care in a midwife-led unit.
It should have taken 15 minutes to transfer Catherine Buckley from a midwife-led unit to the care of a doctor.
Instead, it took almost an hour to travel the 18 miles from Shrewsbury to Telford as the 35-year-old tried not to have her baby in the back of an ambulance. Her husband, Jack, 32, arrived half an hour before her.
Eight months on, Ralph is a happy, healthy baby, but his mother said she would not choose again to have a child at a freestanding midwife-led unit, with no doctors present.
She chose to use the midwife-led unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, because it is the closest to her home, but was transferred during labour to Princess Royal Hospital in Telford after experiencing complications.
"I was told it was only 15 minutes down the road to Telford, the reality is it is not," Mrs Buckley said. "No ambulance arrived for over half an hour.
"On the way to the hospital I was going against every instinct at that point and trying desperately not to push."
Mrs Buckley, who works in marketing, said: "I cannot fault a single person who helped me either in Shrewsbury or in Telford. Everyone was fantastic.
"Options of where to give birth were clearly explained to me and I felt as I was low risk and looking for as calm and natural experience as I could, close to home for family, Shrewsbury was the best option.
"The problem is that if something goes wrong it's at a really crucial time and there are no doctors there if you need them."
Angela Gregory found her labour was made a lot easier thanks to the midwives in the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
When her contractions started with Charlotte in November, she went to the midwife-led unit, which was the closest to her home, and found she was the only person currently in labour.
"There was always somebody with me the whole time", said the 40-year-old accountant.
When Charlotte was born, there was some concern that she was not breathing as well as she should be, due to some of the amniotic fluid having not cleared.
Mother and baby were transferred to the Princess Royal Hospital but Miss Gregory said: "Things sorted themselves out on the way there.
"I stayed in Telford for a day for a routine blood test but then went back to the midwife-led unit.
"I cannot fault the care I had at all. I was constantly reassured."
When Amber Nelson had her first two children, there were doctors on hand to help.
However if the 24-year-old opts for her nearest hospital, Horton General, for her third she will be in the care of midwives alone.
Her other option is 27 miles away at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.
It is the result of a controversial move to temporarily turn the maternity unit at Horton to midwife-led, rather than consultant-led, and the change took effect in October 2016.
Miss Nelson asked: "If everything is normal then I should be able to stay at the Horton, but what if something goes wrong?
"I really want to stay local. Medically I'm fine but on past experience I might need a doctor there.
"That's not the midwives' fault at all, they're always brilliant. You can just never be 100% sure."
Classed as "low risk", Emma Hyatt can choose to have her second child at the same hospital where her son Bugsy was born.
The difference this time, however, is there will be no consultants there. Following the downgrade of Horton General Hospital's maternity department to a midwife-led unit, if something happens that requires consultant care she may have to go to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, 27 miles away.
Another option is to go to Warwick Hospital, which is 22 miles away along the M40.
Mrs Hyatt's experience with Bugsy, which saw her in labour for 20 hours and require medical intervention, leaves her with a choice to make before she is due to give birth in February.
"I don't have any concerns about midwife-led units at all," said the 40-year-old from King Sutton, who works as head of events marketing for a charity.
"I haven't made my decision yet, but I have to weigh up how long it will take for me to access pain relief and other intervention, if I need."
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that between 3 October and 5 December there were 35 births at the Horton and four transfers of women in labour to the John Radcliffe Hospital.
It said "in the context of a national shortage of suitably qualified doctors, the trust was not able to recruit enough doctors to fill the rota (for the Horton), and it became necessary to take a decision as to whether obstetric-led maternity services could safely be maintained".
Maureen Treadwell, co-founder of the Birth Trauma Association, said expectant parents needed more information on the options available.
She said: "Even when someone is deemed to be low risk, something can still go catastrophically wrong.
"[Midwife-led units] are recommended but there simply isn't the data to support that recommendation for first time mothers.
"We are not saying that they are not safe, just that we cannot say for certain."
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) said a "definitive" study had found midwife led care was as safe as a hospital birth and reduced intervention rates.
Louise Silverton, its director for midwifery, said: "Only those women without risk factors fit the criteria for birth in a freestanding unit. They have to give consent and this includes understanding the distance to hospital if transfer is needed.
"However, without the freestanding unit, the women would have needed to travel to the hospital for labour anyway. It is just that a smaller proportion of women will need to travel with the majority giving birth in the freestanding unit.
"Those women who do need to be transferred do so further on into their labour than women who have decided to have their baby in hospital. It should also be stressed that the vast majority of transfers are not urgent, and are done in planned and very controlled circumstances."
She added: "I hear from women all over the UK about their birth experiences and they often report greater levels of satisfaction with midwifery units than receiving care in traditional labour wards."
38,549
Deliveries commenced, 2015-16
28,060
Deliveries completed at MLU
10,489 women transferred to consultant-led care
The longest transfer identified in the BBC's research was 60 miles for women giving birth at Berwick Infirmary in Northumberland. The centre is one of the smallest in England, and only 16 women started their delivery there in 2015-16. However, four had to be transferred. The Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust's consultants based at Northumbria Hospital in Cramlington.
They also have the option to go across into Scotland to Borders General Hospital, which is 39 miles away.
Janice McNichol, head of midwifery at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said the majority of women did not require a transfer.
"The very nature of childbirth, however, means that every woman's experience is different and there are always times when unexpected complications can occur," she said.
In Oswestry in Shropshire, women using the maternity unit at Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital would be transferred 34 miles to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford or 13 miles to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, over the Welsh border.
Women using the maternity unit at Ludlow Hospital face a journey of either 31 miles to Telford or 26 to Hereford.
The trust running both the Oswestry and Ludlow sites, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, was unable to say how many women required transfer, but said it was a transfer rate of between 20 and 25%.
An NHS England spokesman said: "It is safer than ever to give birth in this country and the vast majority of mothers report that they received great NHS care."
Complications that can require a woman in labour to be transferred include:


The custodians of a popular modern art gallery in Edinburgh have denied they plan its permanent closure.

Inverleith House, which is part of the Royal Botanic Garden, has been closed as a dedicated gallery.
Trustees argued it was not a core part of the garden's work and only attracted one in fifty of those visiting the garden.
But they have told the BBC that it will stage art exhibitions in future as well as hosting functions and events.
Since the closure in October, leading figures in the art world have been calling for reassurance about its future.
Art critic Neil Cooper said: "It was the first home of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.
"It provides a vital function in a unique space that does not exist anywhere else in the world."
Simon Milne is Regius Keeper at the Royal Botanic Garden.
He insists the garden had to concentrate on its core function involving the conservation of plants.
He said: "The Trustees decided that they could no longer afford to take the financial risk of dedicating this wonderful gallery to just one area of art, contemporary art.
"They wanted to broaden out our art programme across the garden.
"There's no question of Inverleith House closing. It will very much remain part of our exhibition and events programme. It's a question of how we do art, not if we do art."
The Trustees believe high profile exhibitions and events could attract visitors in larger numbers and have the potential to generate revenue.
Neil Cooper is unimpressed.
"Suggesting it's got to wash its face financially - that's the language of barrow boys flogging bruised fruit," he said.
"It is not the language of Trustees entrusted with looking after a public asset."


New flood defences will be built in parts of West Yorkshire devastated by the Christmas floods, it has been announced.

Houses and businesses in Mytholmroyd had to be evacuated when the River Calder bursts its banks on 26 December.
Environment secretary Elizabeth Truss made the promise of new defences while visiting the area earlier.
Work could start as early as the summer and a plan for the whole Calder Valley will go to Parliament in October.
Ms Truss told BBC Look North: "Calder Valley was one of the worst affected areas.
"I'm talking to local councillors, MPs and residents about what needs to be done to make sure the Calder Valley is protected in future and I'm committed to doing that.
"We need to look at the whole [area] and what we can do improve the defences in towns like Mytholmroyd and Hebden Bridge."
Thousands of properties were damaged when Storm Eva battered the north of England during December's floods.
A plan for Mytholmroyd, which is still recovering, will be drawn up by May and could include plans to raise walls, said Ms Truss.
A more detailed plan for the area will look at improving defences in Hebden Bridge and at slowing down the flow of water in other parts of the valley.
Craig Whittaker, MP for the Calder Valley, said it was a "two-pronged attack" which would help protect the area from future floods.
"It's a huge step forward. This is the first time any government has decided we will have the plans we need."


Only 45% of new pensioners will be entitled to the full, new, flat-rate state pension in the first five years of the system, government figures show.

The new state pension, aimed at simplifying the system, will see a single payment of about Â£150 made to new pensioners from April 2016.
New figures suggest that two million people will not get the full amount.
However, the government has stressed that they will be no worse off than under the current system.
The new flat-rate state pension was unveiled two years ago by the government, and was promised to be a fairer system. This only applies to new retirees from April 2016, rather than the 11 million people who already receive the state pension.
A freedom of information request submitted by investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown reveals that 45% of those retiring between 2016 and 2020 will get the full amount.
Some with a private or workplace pension provision are contracted out of some of the state second pension, which is being integrated into the new flat-rate state pension. This means they will receive a lower amount. Others have a gap in their National Insurance contributions.
After April 2017, people will also have to work longer, making 35 years' worth of National Insurance (NI) contributions, rather than the current 30, to qualify for the full pension.
Anyone who has paid NI for just a few years will not qualify for the new state pension at all. However, some carers receive NI credits despite being out of the workplace.
"The new state pension will ultimately be a simpler and fairer system. However, in the short term it will be complicated and many people are likely to get less than they may expect," said Tom McPhail, of Hargreaves Lansdown.
He said that without a full state pension forecast, some individuals could get a nasty shock.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said that it was misleading to suggest that some people were missing out on the state pension as nobody would be worse off than they would be under the current system.
The DWP has a state pension calculator that gives a simplified calculation of entitlement.
The figures come as the government unveiled the name and branding of the new pension guidance system to be launched in April.
New pension flexibility will give the option to anyone retiring from April with defined contribution pension savings to take that money as cash rather than have it tied into a annuity.
This impartial advice will be called "Pension wise" and will be run by Citizens Advice and the Pensions Advisory Service. Any imitation of this service will be illegal.
The service will be available online, over the phone or face-to-face. It will not provide investment advice but will outline the financial options available for those approaching retirement.


Pluto has mountains made of ice that are as high as those in the Rockies, images from the New Horizons probe reveal.

They also show signs of geological activity on Pluto and its moon Charon.
On Wednesday, scientists presented the first pictures acquired by the New Horizons probe during its historic flyby of the dwarf planet.
The team has also named the prominent heart-shaped region on Pluto after the world's discoverer Clyde Tombaugh.
The spacecraft sped past the dwarf planet on Tuesday, getting as close as 12,500km and grabbing a huge volume of data.
Mission scientist John Spencer told journalists that the first close-up image of Pluto's surface showed a terrain that had been resurfaced by some geological process - such as volcanism - within the last 100 million years.
"We have not found a single impact crater on this image. This means it must be a very young surface," he said.
This active geology needs some source of heat. Previously, such activity has only been seen on icy moons, where it can be explained by "tidal heating" caused by gravitational interactions with a large host planet.
"You do not need tidal heating to power geological activity on icy worlds. That's a really important discovery we just made this morning," said Dr Spencer.
Alan Stern, the mission's chief scientist commented: "We now have an isolated, small planet that's showing activity after 4.5 billion years."
Prof Stern said the discovery would "send a lot of geophysicists back to the drawing boards".
This same image shows mountains at the edge of the heart-like region that are up to 11,000ft (3,300m) high and which team members compared to North America's Rocky Mountains.
John Spencer said the relatively thin coating of methane, carbon monoxide and nitrogen ice on Pluto's surface was not strong enough to form mountains, so they were probably composed of Pluto's water-ice bedrock.
"Water-ice at Pluto temperatures is strong enough to hold up big mountains," he said.
The thin frosting of nitrogen and other volatiles on top of water-ice bedrock was intriguing, said Prof Stern, because Pluto's tenuous, mainly nitrogen atmosphere was constantly being lost to space.
He recently co-authored an academic study with colleague Dr Kelsi Singer making some predictions based on such a scenario.
"What Kelsi and I predicted was that if we saw steep (water-ice) topography on Pluto with only a volatile veneer, there must be internal activity that's dredging nitrogen up through cryo-volcanism or geysers or some other process that's active into the present on this planet," the mission's chief scientist explained.
"We haven't found geysers and we haven't found cryovolcanoes, but this is very strong evidence that will send us looking."
Scientists have named the heart-shaped region Tombaugh Regio, after the astronomer who discovered Pluto in 1930.
The new, close-up image of Charon has revealed a chasm 4-6 miles deep and also further evidence of active resurfacing.
"Originally I thought Charon might have an ancient terrain covered in craters... it just blew our socks off when we had the new image," said Dr Cathy Olkin.
"Going from the north-east to the south-west is a series of troughs and cliffs...they extend about 600 miles across the [moon]. It's a huge area and it could be down to internal processing."
A striking dark region at the moon's pole may be a thin veneer on top of redder material, she added. It has been informally named Mordor, after the region in the fictional land of Middle Earth in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books.
The first well resolved picture of Pluto's small moon Hydra reveals an elongated body with a surface predominantly made of water-ice. In addition, scientists have come up with a good estimate for its size: 43km by 33km.
"Hydra is not a planet," team member Hal Weaver joked.
The snap contains only a few pixels because the moon is so small and distant; New Horizons took the shot from a distance of 400,000 miles (650,000km).
The pictures were sent back to Earth during the course of two data downlinks on Wednesday.
Significantly, all these images are at a much higher resolution than anything we have seen so far.
The mission team has told New Horizons this week to send down only a small fraction of the total data it carries.
Part of the reason is that the probe continues to do science, observing Pluto from its night side.
The intention is to keep looking at it for about two more full rotations, or 12 Earth days.
Follow Paul on Twitter.


The British and Irish Lions have the power to beat New Zealand, according to former Scotland head coach Vern Cotter.

New Zealander Cotter, who was in charge of Scotland from 2014 to 2017, interviewed for the Lions position, narrowly missing out to Warren Gatland.
"I think they are strong enough to win," Cotter told BBC Radio 5 live.
"I think the player talent is there, I think the determination, desire and belief is there. I think they have a real chance," he added.
Cotter coached the Crusaders to Super Rugby titles in 2005 and 2006, before spells with Clermont Auvergne and Scotland in the northern hemisphere.
He feels the home nations have all made major strides since a disappointing Rugby World Cup in 2015.
"If you look at what has happened in northern hemisphere rugby since the World Cup - which I think was a bit of a wake-up call - the rugby has improved and they've used that disappointing World Cup to push through," he added.
"So now is an opportunity for northern hemisphere players to prove they can take the All Blacks -  and I genuinely believe they can. They have the strength to do it, it's just going to be about how they negotiate those midweek games and the heavy-charged weeks they have before the Test matches. But they are certainly capable of winning."
However, with a punishing schedule awaiting the Lions, Cotter has warned they must prioritise the first Test match of the series over the warm-up games if they are to record only their second ever series win in New Zealand.
"The first Test match is key," Cotter continued.
"The coaching staff and the players will know they have to weave their way through some pretty important [warm up] games.
"If they get through the midweek games without getting too knocked around, then the All Blacks are probably at their most vulnerable in the first Test match of a series.
"But the Lions have to win the first couple of Test matches if they want to win the series. The last Test match - if it's a decider - then New Zealand are going to be up with the whole country behind them."
While Cotter says the Lions must have clarity and direction in terms of their game plan, he also feels they have the individual players to overcome the All Blacks.
"The strategies will I think be relatively simple, but they are a smart group of coaches," he said.
"There is enough power through the Lions team, whether it is midfield or second row. I think with [Maro] Itoje and [George] Kruis the Lions probably have anything as good as the All Blacks. I believe the scrum will put New Zealand under pressure, and I think there is enough depth in that Lions squad to have a powerful bench, and put pressure on New Zealand."
While the Lions have been dealt a hammer blow with  Billy Vunipola's withdrawal from the tour, New Zealand have their own injury concerns, with number eight Kieran Read and flanker Jerome Kaino both doubts.
Cotter believes injuries "can go both ways", with the All Blacks also reliant on key players staying fit.
"The All Blacks are reliant on [number eight] Kieran Read, and they are reliant on [second row] Brodie Retallick," he said.
"Injuries can go both ways, and it will be interesting to see whether the All Blacks play their key players for their franchises beforehand. Steve Hansen said he was going to play them but he might change his mind.
"We saw [when New Zealand had] a weakened team a few months back, Ireland were able to take the win off them.
"Is the midfield going to be powerful enough to hold up the Lions? There are a whole lot of questions to be asked, and that's why it's such a fascinating series. It is a powerful Lions outfit going down there, and anything can happen."
Before taking charge of Montpellier in France's Top 14 this summer, Cotter is leading a star-studded Barbarians side on their two match tour.
The legendary invitational side meet England at Twickenham on Sunday before facing Ulster next week.
"I haven't had to do a lot of coaching really," Cotter said.
"It's about putting some simple things in place. The players are really enjoying each other's company, and that's part of the Baabaas spirit.
"It's low-key, with not too much pressure, but it's about putting things in place so we have clarity on the field, and it's good fun."
You can hear more from Vern Cotter on 5 live Rugby from 20:00 BST on Thursday, 25 May.


Some students at Keele University say they have been unable to vote after being told their "names were not on the list" at polling stations.

Keele Students Union Council chairman Tom Snape said up to 100 students had contacted it about problems so far.
Labour candidate Paul Farrelly told the Independent he was going to report the borough council to the Electoral Commission over the "shambles".
Newcastle-Under-Lyme Borough Council said it would investigate the reports.
West Midlands election results and live coverage
Student Lucy Walker said she registered to vote last month but was among a "ridiculous number of students" who had been unable to vote.
She said she was told her "name was not on the list" at polling stations at Keele Village Hall and the students union.
Biomedical sciences undergraduate Andrew Niblett, 18, said in his group of five friends who applied to vote in the area just one had been correctly registered.
The electoral office told him it was because he did not provide ID when prompted online, he said.
"But the thing is I was never prompted to provide ID and also one of my friends, who was prompted, provided ID and it got verified and they still got turned away."
Mr Farrelly, who served as the constituency's MP for 16 years, said the "chaos" was "denying people votes on a scale unprecedented in my 30 years fighting and organising elections".
A council spokesman said:  "Where people haven't completed the online process, it's unfortunate, but if they haven't completed the process they can't be registered to vote."
He added those affected by out-of-date electoral lists had been able to vote after polling staff verified they were on the register.
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Every resident of a former network of children's homes in south London is to receive compensation for being at risk of abuse dating back decades.

Lambeth Council is set to pay tens of millions of pounds to people whether or not they were abused at Shirley Oaks.
A report from ex-residents outlining abuse on an "industrial scale" has named 27 men as alleged abusers.
The investigation says at least 60 abusers were active, and accuses some police officers of corruption.
The publication of the report by the Shirley Oaks Survivors Association (SOSA) covers a period from the 1950s to the closure of the homes in 1983.
BBC home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds says details of the compensation scheme have yet to be finalised, but the council says a key principle would be that there would be a blanket payment to any resident in the Shirley Oaks homes because all were judged to be at risk.
The payments will not be large in many cases but there will be higher payments to those who were abused, our correspondent added.
Shirley Oaks was an 80-acre site near Croydon in south London that included cottages where children in care were looked after by house mothers and fathers. The site also included a school, swimming pool, sick bay and playing fields.
Daniel De Simone, BBC News
SOSA launched its 129-page report at a packed press conference in central London.
Raymond Stevenson and Lucia Hinton, the report's authors, have spent two years gathering documents and speaking to hundreds of people.
A room packed with journalists heard former residents and the relatives of some who later died - many of them emotional, some in tears - describe years of official indifference.
But no longer.
The leader and chief executive of Lambeth Council both spoke, offering  apologies and reparations.
Local MP Chuka Umunna said institutions beyond the council - including the Home Office and the police - were also "culpable."
The group, which conducted its own investigation, said it had illuminated abuse on an "industrial scale" and therefore succeeded where multiple official inquiries had failed.
The SOSA, which spent two years investigating claims of abuse at the home and spoke to more than 400 people, says it was "shocked" by what it had found.
The group said both boys and girls had been abused, including young infants.
The report accuses one named police officer of "providing misleading information to victims" and of "informing one victim their abuser was dead when in fact he was alive".
It links 20 deaths to Shirley Oaks. Some of those named died while residents at the home, others years later, but none are classed as homicides. However, the report states "at the time of their deaths no-one considered whether their lives had been blighted by the extenuating circumstances of being brought up in a Lambeth children's home".
Another claim says Shirley Oaks generated a culture in which children sexually abused one another.
The report, co-authored by SOSA founder Raymond Stevenson, also criticises a series of police inquiries and official reports relating to Lambeth children's homes.
"Some of the omissions and failing of past inquiries contradict our findings and suggest that these prior inquiries were economical with the truth and aimed at concealing the extent of the abuse of children," it adds.
Two of the people named in the report - William Hook and Philip Temple - have been convicted of child sexual abuse relating to Shirley Oaks.
The SOSA has had unprecedented co-operation from Lambeth Council, which has disclosed some of its files, apologised for the abuse and admitted liability.
But the group alleges the council destroyed 140 care records in the mid-2000s despite being required by law to keep them for a further 70 years.
Chief executive of Lambeth council Sean Harriss said: "All the children that were in Shirley Oaks during periods of time when paedophiles were operating were at risk.  We've acknowledged that the council has put all of those children at risk."
Council leader Lib Peck said the authority had previously publicly apologised to those who were "so badly let down".
She added: "The investigation by the Shirley Oaks Survivor's Association has shone further light on the suffering of those entrusted into the council's care. Lambeth Council is preparing a new, far reaching redress scheme for survivors of historical abuse in the borough. It will allow them to secure compensation quickly whilst minimising legal fees."
Last month the survivors association pulled out of the independent inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in England and Wales because of concerns over its leadership.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee and whose Streatham constituency falls within Lambeth, said it was a "sad indictment" the SOSA did not have confidence in the inquiry and "felt their only choice was to withdraw from that investigation and publish their own report".


Vice-President Mike Pence has hired an outside lawyer to handle his response to inquiries into possible ties between President Trump's campaign and Russia.

Richard Cullen is known for representing high profile clients.
Earlier, US media reported that Donald Trump was being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller for possible obstruction of justice.
Mr Mueller is leading an FBI inquiry into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Mr Mueller's team is also investigating the finances and business dealings of President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the Washington Post has reported.
The Post previously reported that investigators were focusing on meetings Mr Kushner had held last year with senior Russian figures.
Reports in US media have said senior intelligence officials are to be interviewed on whether Mr Trump tried to end an inquiry into his sacked National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and about the firing of FBI chief James Comey.
Mr Trump - who has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia - said this was the latest action in a "phony story".
"You are witnessing the single greatest WITCH HUNT in American political history - led by some very bad and conflicted people!" the US president tweeted.
Mr Pence's office announced the decision to hire Mr Cullen on Thursday. It said the vice-president had earlier interviewed several candidates.
"The vice president is focused entirely on his duties and promoting the president's agenda and looks forward to a swift conclusion of this matter," Mr Pence's spokesman Jarrod Agen said.
Mr Cullen, who is chairman of McGuireWoods LLP law firm, represented high profile clients such as former US congressman Tom DeLay and Elin Nordegren, ex-wife of golfer Tiger Woods.
He was also involved into the Iran-Contra and Watergate investigations.
Last month, President Trump hired his own lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, to handle Russia-related investigations by the FBI and US congressional committees.
The latest media reports say the obstruction of justice investigation began just days after Mr Trump fired Mr Comey on 9 May.
Mr Comey, who had been leading one of several Russia inquiries, testified to Congress last week that the president had pressured him to drop the inquiry into Mr Flynn.
Mr Flynn stepped down as the president's national security adviser in February after failing to reveal the extent of his contacts with Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to Washington.
Mr Comey testified under oath that Mr Trump had told him during a private meeting: "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go."
The White House has said the president "has never asked Mr Comey or anyone else to end any investigation, including any investigation involving General Flynn".
Mr Comey said he was "sure" Mr Mueller was looking at whether Mr Trump had obstructed justice.
But Mr Comey also testified that to his knowledge the president had not tried to stop the Russia investigation.


A 60-year-old pedestrian was struck in a hit-and-run by a car being followed by police in north London.

Officers in a marked patrol car spotted the dark vehicle driving erratically along Philip Lane in Haringey at about 21:45 BST on Thursday.
When they followed and tried to stop the car it sped off, striking the man. He remains in hospital with non life-threatening injuries.
It is the second crash involving a Met police pursuit in a week.
Police are still hunting the driver of the vehicle involved in the incident in Haringey. One witness said the injured man was a local bus driver.
The Met said the Directorate of Professional Standards had been informed and that officers from its Serious Collision Investigation Unit were dealing with the incident.
Officers appealed for information and said efforts continue to trace the driver.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, aspiring 10-year-old actor Makayah McDermott and Rozanne Cooper died after a car pursued by police crashed into them in Penge, south-east London.
The pair were run over as they walked along Lennard Road, along with Makayah's twin older sisters Niyah and Yahla, who were trapped under the car and managed to crawl out when bystanders lifted it off them.
Another eight-year-old family member was also injured, but she and the twin girls have since been released from hospital.


The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is warning Barclays Bank of a £50m fine for its 2008 investment deal with Qatari investors.

The FCA said it had "acted recklessly" and breached some rules over disclosing some aspects of the deal and had failed to "act with integrity towards holders and potential holders" of its shares.
Barclays contests the findings.
The news emerged as  Barclays gave details of its plan to raise £5.95bn through the issue of new shares.
Shareholders are being offered one new share at 185p for every four they own.
The new shares are expected to begin trading on 4 October.
The FCA accused the bank of agreeing £322m in secret payments to investors to gain their support for a previous share issuance, worth just over £5bn, taken up in 2008 by Qatar Holding, part of the state-owned investment authority of Qatar.
Barclays said the fees were for giving advice.
The deal, at the height of the credit crisis, helped Barclays to avoid the need for government help which saw rivals RBS and Lloyds end up part-owned by the UK taxpayer.
As part of its share-issuing prospectus, Barclays has to disclose material facts about any potential financial risks to its business.
The prospectus outlines other investigations currently being undertaken by various bodies, including the Office of Fair Trading, the Serious Fraud Office and the US Department of Justice.
The probes cover - among other things - omissions over ownership of sub-prime assets, possible rigging of the energy market and various other possible market abuses.
Also on Monday, Barclays Bank announced it had seen its income fall by £500m ($790m) in July and August from a year ago.
It said it "remains cautious" about the current climate.
The drop was thanks to "significantly" lower revenues in its investment banking division.
The bank said in a trading statement: "Barclays continues to remain cautious about the environment in which it operates and its focus remains on costs, capital, leverage and returns in order to drive sustainable performance improvements."
It added that the investment bank's daily performance in September had improved from July and August, but was still below levels seen in September 2012.
Barclays said its cost-cutting was proceeding according to plan and that it expected operating costs to be £18.5bn this year, excluding restructuring costs, which would meet its target.


Two drivers have been taken to hospital following a serious crash involving three cars on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

One of the men has been seriously hurt and is being treated in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
The crash happened on the Cliftonhall Road, near the turning for the Ratho Climbing Centre, at about 06:50.
Police Scotland said the road would remain closed for several hours while an investigation was carried out.
Police have appealed for witnesses.


A group of paediatricians has called for smart health-trackers, designed to monitor babies while they sleep, to be regulated by the same US body that oversees other medical equipment.

The monitors, which often take the form of sensors fitted to clothing or nappies, measure signs such as heart rate and breathing during sleep.
The data is shared with a phone app.
The doctors spoke out after seeing babies being brought to A&E after smart-monitor false alarms.
The team from the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia said the devices should be approved  by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
One brand they mentioned was Owlet, which sells a $250 (Â£199) monitor that tracks sleeping babies' heart rates and oxygen levels via a sensor concealed inside his or her sock.
It says on its website that it has already submitted a medical version to the FDA for approval.
"For most healthy babies there is not a role for home monitoring at all," said neonatologist Dr Elizabeth Foglia, one of the authors of the opinion piece published by the American Medical Association journal Jamanet (subscription).
"All the data we have so far suggests monitoring healthy infants at home has not been shown to reduce the risk of Sids [Sudden Infant Death Syndrome].
"There are few classes of babies for whom it would be appropriate to go home with a medical monitor - and a physician would prescribe that monitor."
While the makers of the devices are very clear that they cannot prevent Sids (also known as cot death), they say the devices monitor a number of warning signs.
Dr Foglia, Dr Christopher Bonafide and Dr David Jamison wrote that they were concerned that the publicly available devices, while intended to alleviate parental anxiety, could end up causing more distress.
"By continuously monitoring healthy infants, parents will inevitably experience some alarms for conditions that are not life-threatening, including false-positive alarms... and true-positive alarms for events that are not clinically important," they said.
"Healthy infants have occasional oxygen de-saturations to less than 80% without consequence, and these monitors could increase the risk of over-diagnosis and potential harm if these innocuous events generate alarms."
The devices have proved popular with parents.
"It is unsurprising that new parents are seduced into buying new gadgets for their babies and as technology evolves there is a growing array of monitoring products," said Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight.
"New parents are low-hanging fruit for gadget-makers because they want to give their babies the best start in life.
"The problem is that in the age of the 'worried well' such products can end up leading to false alarms that can alarm parents and place even more pressure on already stretched health services."


United States captain Davis Love III will ask his team for advice about picking four wildcards for the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, in Minnesota.

Love aims to avoid an unprecedented fourth straight American defeat when play begins on 27 September.
He will pick three wildcards to add to his eight automatic qualifiers on 12 September, with a fourth selection five days before the competition starts.
"It's time for these eight to take ownership of this team," Love said.
"If they go in there believing in what we are telling them, that they have the best team, and that they are ready to go, then they are going to play well."
Patrick Reed's victory in The Barclays on Sunday secured his automatic place on the team alongside Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth, Jimmy Walker, Brooks Koepka, Brandt Snedeker and Zach Johnson.
Two-time Masters winner Bubba Watson is one of the wildcard contenders, along with 2015 Scottish Open champion Rickie Fowler.
Love was the American captain when Europe achieved their biggest final-day comeback to secure a 14½-13½ win at Medinah in 2012.
The American team struggled after defeat in 2014, with Phil Mickelson criticising the captaincy of Tom Watson, who later accused him of "sour grapes".
"Golf is different than other sports. [The] mental side of it is huge," Love added.
European captain Darren Clarke will confirm his three captain's wildcard picks on Tuesday, with Lee Westwood and Graeme McDowell vying for places.


Butterflies and brightly-coloured clothes were the order of the day for the 250 mourners who gathered to celebrate the short life of Hayley Okines, who died earlier this month at the age of 17 from progeria.

She was diagnosed with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome at the age of two, which caused her body to age eight times faster than normal, and she died in her mother's arms on 2 April.
Turquoise was one of the teenager's favourite colours and she was brought to All Saints Church, in Sidley, East Sussex, in a tiny coffin of the same colour.
Friends and family, lead by her mother Kerry, walked behind the hearse for the short distance from her home.
Kerry Okines and Hayley's two older sisters, Stacey and Charlotte, then carried the coffin into church.
Hayley's two chihuahua puppies were also taken in to the funeral service.
Some of the mourners had travelled from the US, Holland, Belgium and Portugal to pay their last respects.
The Prince of Wales led the tributes to Hayley, dubbed the "100-year-old teenager", in a letter sent to her parents and read out in church, describing her as "an inspiration to millions".
Prince Charles recalled how he had met her at the Children of Courage event in Westminster Abbey in 2004, and was "deeply impressed by her incredible spirit and her infectious love of life".
Hayley's younger sister Ruby sang a song called You're Free, before telling the congregation that "she could not have asked for a better sister".
In an emotional tribute, Mrs Okines then spoke of her "little chick" who had made her "the proudest mum in the world".
"You are the reason why I got out of bed in the morning and managed to put one foot in front of another."
Hayley's father Mark spoke of his "very special girl" in a poem read out in church.
Speaking afterwards, school friend Rachel Blackmore, 16, recalled how she "lit up the room" every time she entered it.
Another friend, Connie Barton, 15, added: "We had loads of sleepovers, and did lots of girly things together, and were always giggling."
The funeral service was followed by a private cremation.


Jurassic World held on to the top spot at the North American box office over the 4 July weekend, fending off Terminator: Genisys and Magic Mike XXL.

The dinosaur sequel has now been number one for four weeks, taking an estimated $30.9m (£19.8m) between Friday and Sunday, according to early figures.
Pixar's Inside Out made $30.1m (£19.3m) in its third weekend of release.
Terminator: Genisys, the fifth film in the franchise, took $28.7m (£18.4m) over the weekend.
Channing Tatum's Magic Mike sequel made $12m (£7.7m) over the three days.
However once five-day totals are taken into account - as new entries were released on Wednesday instead of the usual Friday for the holiday weekend - box office returns appear more healthy.
Inside Out pulled in the most revenue overall with an estimated $45.3m (£29.1m) across 4,158 locations, ahead of Jurassic World's $43.8m (£28.1m) at 3,737 screens.
The Chris Pratt film currently ranks as America's fourth highest-grossing film on record, with a total $568.2m (£364.9m) in box office receipts.
Terminator: Genisys - which sees Arnold Schwarzenegger return to the franchise after sitting out 2009's Terminator Salvation - took $44.2m (£28.4m).
But it failed to match the $65.3m (£42m) five-day debut of Salvation, which opened over a Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Coincidentally, Jurassic Park also held off Schwarzenegger's Last Action Hero from the number one spot when both films were released in 1993.
Magic Mike XXL performed better in its first two days of release, helping it make $27m (£17.3m) overall. The original film opened with $39.1m (£25.1m).
Animated prequel Minions will open in North America next weekend after strong showing at the international box office - where it has made $124.2m (£79.8m).
Meanwhile, Walt Disney Studios has now reached the $3bn (£1.9bn) global box office milestone for the year - the fastest it has ever achieved the feat.
The success of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Cinderella and Inside Out helped the studio pass the mark five weeks faster than last year.


Jersey's Jonty Jenner says he is hopeful that he can push towards the Sussex first team.

The 18-year-old had the second-highest score and the fourth-best batting average of any player at this summer's World Twenty20 Global Qualifer.
"My big ambition is to really cement a place in the side in the second team for Sussex," he said.
"With a few good performances hopefully I'll be knocking on the door of that Sussex first team," he told BBC Jersey.
Jenner is about to start his second season with the Sussex Academy and made his debut for Jersey as a 15-year-old.
The wicketkeeper-batsman has become a regular in the island side, which currently play in Division Five of the World Cricket League.
Jenner has made a number of appearances for Sussex's second team and says playing international cricket for Jersey has prepared him well.
"It's similar to those international-type fixtures," he said.
"When we're playing in Jersey, sometimes we don't get the opposition that we might want, but this second team is a really good standard and it is similar to that international cricket.
"Sometimes it doesn't get taken too seriously, but I'm really proud to play for Jersey and I absolutely love coming back and playing for them.
"It's more high-level cricket, so it's all I can ask for really."
Jersey have yo-yoed between Division Four and Division Five of the 50-over World Cricket League, and host next year's Division Five tournament after being relegated from Division Four last summer.
But despite the inconsistency, Jenner thinks Jersey are capable of playing at a higher level.
"It's fairly disappointing," he said. "I think we're almost too good for World Cricket League Five and we haven't quite proved ourselves yet in Division Four."


The UN children's agency says there has been an "alarming" increase in the number of suicide attacks in northern Nigeria, with many of them involving women and children.

There had been 27 attacks so far this year, compared with 26 for the whole of last year, Unicef said in a statement.
Three-quarters of the attacks were carried out by female bombers, some as young as seven, it added.
Militant Islamist group Boko Haram is waging an insurgency in Nigeria.
BBC Nigeria analyst Naziru Mikailu says Boko Haram may be increasingly resorting to suicide attacks, following its loss of territory to regional forces.
Nigeria's army said in March that it had recaptured all cities and towns from the group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants fighting for a global caliphate.
Unicef said it did not believe that the girls carried out the bombings willingly.
"Children are not instigating these suicide attacks; they are used intentionally by adults in the most horrific way," it said. "They are first and foremost victims - not perpetrators."
Some of the girls had been abducted and were being exploited by militants who knew that they were less likely to be checked when entering target areas such as busy markets or bus stations, the statement added.
Our correspondent says there is suspicion that some girls are duped into being bombers, thinking they are carrying parcels when they are, in fact, explosives.
More than 15,500 people have been killed during the six-year insurgency.
About 1.5 million people have been displaced and hundreds more abducted by Boko Haram.
Earlier this month, the military rescued nearly 300 women and children who were being held by the group in its forest hideout in north-eastern Nigeria.
Among those still being held captive are 219 girls who were taken from their boarding school in Chibok town in April 2014, sparking global outrage.


For the past year, supporters of Boris Nemtsov have been keeping guard at a shrine on the spot beside the Kremlin where he was murdered.

They brave the elements 24 hours a day to protect the memorial from nationalists who have vandalised it, denouncing the opposition politician as a traitor.
The pictures and candles have also been swept away by city cleaners in the dead of night after police detained those standing guard.
"They're still battling Nemtsov after his death," Nadir said this week, brushing snow from bunches of flowers with a paint brush.
"But it's no use," the activist believes. "People just bring more flowers, more photos and more icons."
Boris Nemtsov was shot in the back as he walked home late at night last 27 February in a killing that shocked Russia.
His political allies believe it was meant to terrify them into silence.
A former deputy prime minister once mooted as a successor to President Yeltsin, Mr Nemtsov was a reformer and a democrat who became fiercely critical of Vladimir Putin.
On what was to be his last night alive he had been at the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy, calling on listeners to join a protest rally that weekend.
In typically feisty form, he accused Russia's president of launching an illegal war with Ukraine, prompting Western sanctions and an economic crisis.
Certain that his murder was politically motivated, Boris Nemtsov's family and friends argue the official investigation does not dig deep enough.
Five men from Chechnya were captured quickly and face trial later this year as the suspected contract killers.
"But what about those who organised the murder and promised the money?" the lawyer for Boris Nemtsov's family, Vadim Prokhorov, wants to know.
The accused have ties to people in the inner circle of Chechnya's strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, and the lawyer wants them questioned.
Instead, investigators have identified the driver of an interior ministry battalion deputy commander as the supposed mastermind of the murder - but he has vanished without trace.
His supposed motive and access to funds are unclear.
"It means real steps to the inner circle of Ramzan Kadyrov were blocked," Mr Prokhorov argues, fearing a cover-up.
The Chechen leader himself has denied any link to the killing, suggesting Mr Nemtsov's allies look closer to home.
Meanwhile, the self-declared "loyal foot soldier" of President Putin has taken to social media to denounce Kremlin critics as jackals and traitors.
In January, Mr Kadyrov posted a video of one of Boris Nemtsov's closest allies in the sights of a gun. The target, Mikhail Kasyanov, took it as a direct death threat.
Not long after, a man slammed a cake into his face in a restaurant yelling that he was the "shame of Russia".
"There are a lot of changes [since Nemtsov died]. But all to the worse. The threats are growing," Mr Kasyanov told the BBC, linking the rising tensions to the approach of parliamentary elections in autumn.
"The problems in the economy help people see Russia is heading in the wrong direction.
"That's why the authorities are so nervous and angry, and encourage these hooligans to prevent our activity," he argues.
Earlier this month, Mikhail Kasyanov was forced to break off a campaigning trip to Nizhny Novgorod after he says his colleagues were attacked and threatened.
The next day, nationalist groups rallied outside the hotel where he was due to appear.
"Go to the USA or Brussels. That's where they pay you!" a bearded speaker urged Mr Kasyanov, addressing the small, flag-wielding crowd.
Other slogans called for ideological enemies to be purged and the crowd chanted 1-9-3-7, the year that Stalin's Great Terror reached its height.
"We are sure the West wants a revolution here but we won't let it happen," one speaker insisted. "Our country backs Vladimir Putin!"
"Of course I'm worried," Mikhail Kasyanov admitted, after his early return to Moscow. "People don't feel secure at all."
Whoever pulled the trigger, or paid for his murder, Boris Nemtsov's supporters also blame the climate of hate they say has built up here.
They date its roots to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the patriotic fervour whipped up in its wake. Critics of that policy were viewed as traitors.
Zhanna Nemtsova remembers warning her father that it was a dangerous moment.
"I told him we probably should leave and he said we should wait. He was very optimistic," the politician's daughter recalls.
"He told me one day he could be in prison, he was ready for that. But he wasn't ready for death at all," she added.
Three months after her father's murder, Zhanna left Russia for her own safety. She has now begun her own battle from abroad, for justice.
"I think I owe it to my father, I think it's my mission to have this investigation and I think it's important for Russia," Zhanna told the BBC.
"Because if there is no resistance, then these awful things will go on."


Two police officers have been taken to hospital after being injured in a crash during a high-speed car chase in Edinburgh.

The man and woman are being treated in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
The crash happened in Drumbrae at about 04:00.


A schoolboy who sold ecstasy tablets to a West Lothian girl who later died has been sentenced to 18 months detention.

Dione Melville, 15, and two of her female friends were at a sleepover party when they took the ecstasy.
All three girls were taken to hospital when they fell ill after swallowing the tablets in East Calder.
The 16-year-old boy earlier pleaded guilty to supplying the drug to the schoolgirls at a house in Livingston between 19 and 26 March 2016.
The then 15-year-old dealer knew the drugs were "dodgy" because a girl he had sold them to the week before had also taken ill, Livingston Sheriff Court was told.
Katrine Craig, prosecuting, said that when he was filmed on CCTV selling the class A drug for Â£10 a pill, the youth had warned one of the girls to be careful and to "take the tablets in halves because they were lethal".
Dione's two friends survived but she died in the ambulance on the way to hospital.
The prosecution accepted his not guilty pleas to dealing the drug to boys aged 12, 16 and 17 and another 15-year-old girl.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Ferguson told the boy: "You have pled guilty to an extremely serious charge and this involved a class A drug ecstasy which is known to have at times disastrous effects, particularly when taken by young people.
"Initially what happened is that you passed this drug on to one young person and you became aware that that young person became ill.
"Despite that you continued to supply this drug to other youngsters aged just 15 years.
"You pled guilty to this charge and you are not responsible in law, it seems, for what happened thereafter, but you're responsible for selling a class A drug to other young people in your community and you have to meet the consequences of that.
"In my view there is no other realistic method of dealing with you other than a custodial sentence and you will go to detention for 18 months."
Dione's mother and father, Lesley and Michael, were at court for the sentencing.
Outside, Lesley said: "I think the sentence should have been longer but 18 months is a good start.
"He clearly thought he was going to get off with a community sentence and walk. I'm so happy."


Syria is a long way from Australia and the 12,000 refugees who will make their way south over the next 12 months will be likely to measure the distance in more than kilometres.

In a surprising policy change, the Australian government this week said it would accept 12,000 Syrian refugees from camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
In what will be Australia's biggest refugee intake in decades, the government is rushing to find accommodation and extra services to help resettle people fleeing trauma and persecution in their home country.
It won't be easy moving to a strange, new country but the government has a helpful explainer for new arrivals.
The "Life in Australia" booklet, published by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, offers handy tips and explanations about the ways down under.
There are facts and figures about the country, an explanation of national symbols and a potted history of this "wide, brown land".
More intriguingly, the faceless bureaucrats have offered a cultural snapshot that may bemuse rather than reassure new arrivals, complete with definitions for time-honoured phrases such as "drop by this arvo for a cuppa" (please visit this afternoon for a cup of tea or coffee) and "no worries", which of course means "the task or request will be carried out without fuss or bother".
The booklet also points out that although locals may often strip off on hot days at the beach, that does not mean wearing little clothing translates to having "low moral standards".
It describes the concepts of "mateship" (a friend but also a total stranger), a "fair go", and the much-loved ritual of having a "barbie".
It claims another defining feature of Australian society is its egalitarian nature and Australians' informal relationship with work colleagues.
"However, this informality does not extend to physical contact. When meeting someone for the first time, it is usual to shake the person's right hand with your right hand. People who do not know each other generally do not kiss or hug when meeting."
The importance of good manners and good hygiene are also explained. Not blowing your nose on the street gets a mention, as does washing your hands before eating and after going to the toilet, and saying "thank you" or "please" when dealing with others.
"Australians also queue or line up when waiting to be served in a shop, a bank, a government department, a cinema or anywhere a number of people are all seeking a service at the same time."
The peak eating times of the day are spelt out:
"The midday meal is called 'lunch', and the evening meal is usually called 'dinner'. Some Australians also refer to the evening meal as 'tea' and can use the term to mean either dinner or, literally, a cup of tea or 'cuppa'. If invited for tea, the time of the event is a good sign of whether your host means dinner or just a cup of tea. An invitation to tea, any time after 6 pm (1800 hours) usually means dinner."
Is there a typical Australian, asks the booklet?
Well, what with the ocker, the digger and his mate, it can all be a bit confusing.
Just remember:
"Australians are egalitarian, irreverent people with a deep suspicion of authority - yet they are mostly law-abiding and conformist."
Oh, and we all love the bush but most of us live in cities on the coast.
Bonza!


Bristol City manager Lee Johnson says Matty Taylor is "very, very brave" after his transfer deadline day move from fierce rivals Bristol Rovers.

Striker Taylor became the first player to join City from Rovers since Trevor Morgan did so in January 1987.
The 26-year-old had been with Rovers since July 2014, scoring 61 goals in 118 league appearances for the club.
"If his mindset's good and strong, there's no doubt our fans will take to him," Johnson told BBC Radio Bristol.
"For me it's purely about the football, of course it is, but I think the player's been very, very brave to make this step across the city.
"It'll be interesting to see and I fully believe that he'll hit the ground running."


A senior academic has accused the Conservatives of a "sleight of hand" over the justification of its grammar schools policy in its manifesto.

Prof Alice Sullivan challenges the party's statement that selective schools have proportionately more pupils from "ordinary working class families" than non-selective schools.
She says families in the bottom third for income have been excluded from the calculation supporting this data.
The Tories stand by their manifesto.
The party argues that increasing the number of grammar schools will improve social mobility as more poor bright children will be taught by them.
It says that is because the achievement gap between rich and poor children closes to near zero in grammars.
However, Prof Sullivan, professor of sociology at University College London, said the main reason grammar schools were an "unlikely tool for promoting social mobility" is that working class children were far less likely than richer children to attend them.
The party's manifesto says: "Contrary to what some people allege, official research shows that slightly more children from ordinary, working class families attend selective schools as a percentage of the school intake as compared to non-selective schools."
Prof Sullivan disagrees with this statement, which is based on a piece of Department for Education research which sought to define the government's term "ordinary working families".
It described a new group of families existing on below average income, but not on the pupil premium or free school meals
According to the research 36% of pupils in grammar schools are from this group, compared to the 35% of pupils in non-selective schools.
The research also shows that in grammar schools 9% of pupils are either on free school meals or the pupil premium and 32% of pupils in these groups in non-selective schools.
These categories are usually a shorthand for disadvantaged children, many of whose parents will be on low pay or on benefits, or at least will have been in the past six years.
But these pupils, the poorest group of children, appear to be excluded from the Conservative Party figures used in their manifesto.
The research says: "The percentage of children at selective schools from below median income families, who are not considered disadvantaged, (36%) is almost the same as the percentage for non-selective schools (35%)."
Prof Sullivan said: "They are flying in the face of all the evidence that we have and using a clear sleight of hand to represent the evidence to claim that grammar schools are taking their share of ordinary working class kids.
"It does seem that unless they've actually tricked themselves that they believe that the bottom third of families aren't working class, or either they are stupid enough to think that they're not, that they are actually using a bit of statistical jiggery-pokery."
She adds: "The DfE figures in fact show clearly that pupils from families on below average incomes are far less strongly represented in grammar schools than non-selective schools."
Prof Sullivan believes that there was no evidence that grammar schools would tackle educational inequality and increase social mobility.
Out of all manifesto plans, she suggests this policy is the one as least likely to achieve its stated aim.
The Conservative Party said: "As our manifesto says, official research shows that slightly more children from ordinary, working class families attend selective schools as a percentage of the school intake compared to non-selective schools.
"As well as improving our schools for the most disadvantaged children, we also want to improve education for children from ordinary working families."


An investigation into abuse at a children's care home has been widened to include other establishments.

In May it was revealed 26 former residents of the Beechwood home in Mapperley, Nottingham, had been awarded a total of Â£250,000 in compensation.
The city council said the claims were settled without an admission of liability but confirmed there were a "significant number" of other claims.
Now it has emerged these relate to 12 other care homes and secure units.
In 2010 Nottinghamshire Police launched Operation Daybreak, an investigation into allegations of abuse at Beechwood from the 1960s to 2000.
By last year this had widened to include four other homes in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
Now Nottingham City Council has confirmed compensation claims have been received in relation to 13 centres.
Nottinghamshire Police said it was actively investigating five homes with another four facing no further action.
The disclosures follow a BBC Freedom of Information request.
Officers also confirmed 10 men had been arrested with seven released with no further action; two on bail and still being investigated on suspicion of rape and that one man had since died during its investigation over rape allegations.
(Key: *Compensation claims, +Under police investigation)
Former resident Mickey Summers is at the centre of a campaign to reveal what went on. He has already been told his records were destroyed in the late 1970s.
He said: "I feel disgusted and let down. I believe the police weren't interested. It's the same old thing, they think a little boy crying wolf and associate kids in children's homes with attention seeking.
"I feel like they've abused me for the last 10 years. I want someone made accountable. I don't care if individuals are deceased. Make someone corporately accountable. It's about justice and getting final closure."
Mr Summers complained to Nottinghamshire Police more than a decade ago but claims he was not taken seriously - a decision which will be reviewed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
A city council spokesman said they were trying to help Mr Summers get to the truth and had conducted an extensive search for his records and their destruction was due to the lack of rules on keeping files at the time.
But they said they had apologised and were still trying to help him piece together what happened.