Phone hacking: News of the World apologises to Sienna Miller

Paper offers ‘sincere apologies’ in high court for intercepting voicemail messages intended for actor The News of the World on Tuesday issued a detailed formal apology for phone hacking for the first time, to actor Sienna Miller. A lawyer for News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that publishes the News of the World, read a statement in the high court expressing regret for intercepting voicemail messages intended for Miller. News Group’s QC, Michael Silverleaf, said his client offered its “sincere apologies” to Miller for “the distress caused to her by accessing of her voicemail messages, the publication of the private information in the articles and the related harassment she suffered as a consequence”. Silverleaf added that News Group Newspapers “acknowledges that the information should never have been obtained in the manner it was, the private information should never have been published and that the first defendant [News Group] has accepted responsibility for misuse of private information, breach of confidence and harassment”. Miller, who was not present to hear the statement, accepted an out-of court-payment of £100,000 in damages last month plus her legal costs. Her solicitor Mark Thomson, a partner at Atkins Thomson, said she would not be making a statement. David Sherborne QC, for Miller, reminded the high court that she had changed her mobile phone number three times in as many months in a bid to avoid being successfully targeted by the News of the World and Glenn Mulcaire, a private detective who formerly worked for the paper. Sherborne added that the News of the World had published “numerous articles” in 2005 and 2006 that used private information. By admitting to this, the paper has conceded that it used information obtained by intercepting messages about Miller’s former partner Jude Law and ex-boyfriend Daniel Craig, as the basis for stories. In her statement of claim, the actor cited 11 articles that drew on private information, including details of her relationship with Law and with Craig, and Miller’s discussions with the former about the possibility of them having children. Miller is the first celebrity to settle a claim since the tabloid, part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, in April admitted hacking the phones of several public figures and offered to pay compensation . •

Posted by on June 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.