Mirror in phone-hacking payouts to host of stars

A host of celebrities have received damages and an apology from Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over phone-hacking.

Lord Jeffrey Archer, Dame Mary Archer, footballer Kevin Keegan, former home secretary Charles Clarke and actress Patsy Kensit were among 44 individuals whose cases were resolved at London’s High Court yesterday.

It took more than two hours for the agreed statements settling their actions for misuse of private information to be read out to Mr Justice Mann.

None of the well-known names involved, which also included Jo Wood, the exwife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, actress Gillian Taylforth and a number of TV soap stars, attended.

As well as the damages sums, which were not made public, MGN offered its apologies in each case.

It is understood some of the settlements exceed the £260,250 record damages awarded to actress and businesswoman Sadie Frost following a High Court trial in 2015 – and that around 50 claims are still in the pipeline.

Solicitor Gerald Shamash told the court the activities were damaging for Lord Archer, Dame Mary and their family.

Mr Keegan’s solicitor, John Newell, said in a statement: “Discovering that his private communications with his family, friends and associates had been unlawfully accessed was a devastating intrusion.”

Counsel David Sherborne said the activities of MGN were a source of “enormous stress” for Mr Clarke and his family and caused them to “drastically adapt” their way of life.

In December, Trinity Mirror announced: “We have made good progress on settling civil claims arising from phone-hacking with damages for over 80% of claims now settled.

“However it is clear that costs, in particular the claimants’ legal costs, will be higher and this has caused us to increase the provision for dealing with these historic matters by £11.5million.

“Including this increase the provision remaining at the end of this year is expected to be around £22million.”

Jeffrey Archer