Phone hacking: Leslie Ash settles with NoW but may sue other papers

Actor and her husband, Lee Chapman, understood to have accepted ‘healthy six-figure sum’ over alleged phone hacking Leslie Ash and her husband, Lee Chapman, have reached an out-of-court settlement with News International over alleged hacking of their phones by the News of the World, but are now considering legal action against other newspapers. The level of damages paid by News International was undisclosed, although Ash is understood to have received a “healthy six-figure sum”, thought to be more than the £100,000 News of the World owner paid to actor Sienna Miller earlier this year in another out-of-court settlement of a civil action over phone hacking. Ash and Chapman began a civil action against News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers, which published the now-defunct News of the World, over allegations that their voicemail messages were intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire , the private detective formerly employed by the paper. “We are pleased to say that our and our sons’ claims against News Group Newspapers (NGN) Ltd and Mr Mulcaire have been resolved,” the pair said in a statement. “NGN has agreed to pay our family an appropriate sum by way of compensation and costs and it has apologised for the harm and distress it has caused us,” they added. “However, we remain concerned that the practices complained of against NGN are likely to have been prevalent within a number of other media publishers, and we will be instructing our lawyer, Charlotte Harris of Mishcon De Reya, to take action against other newspapers in due course.” A News International spokesman said: “News International is committed to reaching swift and fair settlements with victims of illegal voicemail interception and has unreservedly apologised to those affected.” •

Posted by on August 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.