Hugh Grant wins phone hacking damages

  • 06/02/2018
British actor Hugh Grant settled his hacking claim
British actor Hugh Grant settled his hacking claim Photo credit: Getty images

Hugh Grant has settled his phone-hacking damages claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in the High Court.

The Press Association says it is understood Grant will be paid a six-figure sum, which he will donate to the campaign group Hacked Off.

The British actor was at the London court on Monday to hear his lawyer give details of the settlement at a hearing before Justice Mann.

Anjlee Saigol, of Taylor Hampton Solicitors, told the judge: "Mr Grant brought this action in relation to alleged illegal misuses of his private information, obtained by hacking into his voicemails, as well as blagging and surveillance, committed by MGN's journalists at all three of its newspapers over, as MGN now accepts, many years."

Speaking outside court after the hearing, Grant said: "This case was not just about what they did to my phone and those close to me.

"In this litigation my lawyer and I pressed further because I was determined to uncover the truth about the nature of high-level concealment at the Mirror Group.

"This litigation has made clear that phone hacking and other unlawful information-gathering took place on an industrial scale at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People. 

"This newspaper group has misled the public and its shareholders for many years; and it has let down its readers and its hard-working journalists.

"The public were not told the truth, the victims were not told the truth, the shareholders were not told the truth and the Leveson inquiry was not told the truth.

"That is why the second part of the Leveson inquiry must take place - to get to the truth and discover who broke the law and who lied about it."

In 2012 Grant accepted a "substantial sum" in damages from the now-defunct News of the World newspaper.

NSN