News of the World phone-hacking settlement agreed by Kelly Hoppen

Interior designer accepts £60,000 plus costs from News Group Newspapers, as Ashley Cole joins list of compensation test cases The interior designer Kelly Hoppen settled her phone-hacking claim against the publisher of the News of the World on Friday after it agreed to pay her compensation of £60,000 plus costs. Hoppen sued News Group Newspapers, former News of the World journalist Dan Evans and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for misuse of private information and breach of confidence. She alleged they intercepted messages left on her mobile phone from 2004 to 2006. It emerged in the high court on Friday that NGN had admitted this in April this year. Hoppen originally brought the action against News Group and Evans alleging that there had been an attempt to access her voicemail messages in 2009, a claim the defendants denied. She was told by police earlier this year that her phone had been targeted five years ago and it was those charges that News Group admitted. News Group accepted no liability for the alleged 2009 incident. Michael Silverleaf QC apologised in court on behalf of the company. Several hacking victims have now settled with News Group, including Andy Gray, who received £20,000 compensation. Sienna Miller accepted £100,000 plus legal fees. Milly Dowler’s family were offered £3m by News Group’s parent company, News Corp after a meeting with its chairman and founder Rupert Murdoch. Separately, Ashley Cole, who is also suing NGN, will have his case heard at trial as one of several test cases designed to set the level of compensation the publisher will have to pay to victims if they win their cases. The high court also heard that Greg Hurst, a former intelligence officer, is suing News Group and Alex Marunchak, who was a senior journalist at the NoW for 15 years until 2006. Hurst alleges Marunchak instructed another defendant, the private investigator Jonathan Rees, to hack into his emails. Hurst’s lawyer, Jeremy Reed QC, told the court Rees was instructed by Marunchak to send a trojan email to Hurst so that his messages could be accessed. The allegations were originally aired on BBC1′s Panorama in March. Rees denied acting illegally. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News of the World News Corporation Media business James Robinson guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 7, 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.