Phone hacking: Shaun Russell among those suing News International

The father of Josie Russell, who survived a hammer attack in which her mother and sister were killed, is one of the claimants The father of Josie Russell, who as a young girl survived a horrific attack in which her mother and sister were killed, is among a raft of new claimants suing News International for alleged phone hacking. Shaun Russell is one of dozens of alleged victims who are suing the News of the World’s parent company, part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Russell’s daughter Josie survived the 1996 attack by Michael Stone in which her mother, Lin, and younger sister, Megan, were murdered. The murders and the subsequent hunt for the killer were the subject of intense media interest. Thirteen new legal writs, from claimants including the Sarah’s law campaigner Sara Payne and 7/7 hero Paul Dadge, were issued against News Group Newspapers company on Monday , taking the number of civil actions now under way to more than 60. Dadge is the man whose image was published across the world after he was photographed helping victims of the 2005 tube bombings. Another 24 writs were filed last week. The scale of the litigation now facing the News of the World’s owner could force the company to make payments that far exceed the £20m it has set aside for compensating phone-hacking victims who can demonstrate that they have a strong case. It emerged in July that a mobile phone given to Sara Payne had been targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was employed by the paper. Payne campaigned with the NoW to change the law so that parents could obtain access to information about paedophiles following the murder of her eight-year-old daughter, Sarah. Payne’s representatives indicated at the time that she was unlikely to sue the title. She wrote an article praising the paper in its final issue, which was published the week before it emerged she had also been targeted by Mulcaire. Others who have also now begun legal action include Dannii Minogue and her brother Brendan, Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell, James Blunt, Pete Doherty, the actor Sadie Frost, and Lance Gerrard-Wright, the ex-husband of Ulrika Jonsson, who is also suing the paper. The rash of lawsuits has been triggered by a deadline set by Mr Justice Vos, the judge who is hearing a number of phone-hacking cases that are well advanced. They include actions being brought by Steve Coogan and the football agent Sky Andrew, which are due to come to trial in the new year. The media lawyer Niri Shan, of Taylor Wessing, said victims who filed claims before a trial scheduled for January could benefit because there was “a level of uncertainty about what the court would award in January. He added: “News Corp may overpay to get rid of claimants.” If the claimants win in January and they are awarded damages by Vos those payouts will be used to assess the level of future payments to hacking victims. Also among the high-profile names in the 63 writs now listed are the former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell and politicians including Lord Prescott, Simon Hughes, Denis MacShane, Chris Bryant, Mark Oaten, Tessa Jowell and George Galloway. There are also writs in the names of George Best’s son, Calum, Ashley Cole, the rugby player Gavin Henson and the jockey Kieren Fallon. Some of the writs involve more than one person. Charlotte Church is joined in her lawsuit by her mother, Maria, and stepfather James. This reflects the fact that Mulcaire typically made a note of phone numbers and other personal information belonging to the relatives and friends of the celebrities he allegedly targeted. The overwhelming majority of the writs have been issued jointly against News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that published the now defunct News of the World, and Mulcaire. But one, filed by the singer Cornelia Crisa, also names the former NoW chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, who chose to break his silence on the phone-hacking affair last week in sensational fashion. It is the first phone-hacking lawsuit to target Thurlbeck, who was arrested and bailed in April for alleged hacking but has not been charged. Thurlbeck said: “As I said last week, the truth will out. But this will be in the law courts and at a public tribunal.” He has started legal proceedings against News Group claiming that he was unfairly dismissed. The number and range of the claims has taken some legal observers by surprise. One of the lawyers acting for some of the hacking victims, Mark Lewis, pointed out: “So far, fewer than 5% of the victims of Glenn Mulcaire have been notified.” Scotland Yard detectives working on Operation Weeting, which is investigating allegations of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World, are in the process of contacting nearly 4,000 people whose names are listed in notebooks seized from Mulcaire’s home in a 2006 raid. Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal editor, were jailed for hacking in January 2007. Lewis said: “When the final tally takes place, we will see thousands of claims and more than one paper.” He added that, as the number of claimants grows, estimates that Murdoch’s company would need at least £100m to settle such claims looks like “a serious underestimate”. Several litigants, including the former Sky Sports commentator Andy Gray and the actor Sienna Miller, have already received payments of tens of thousands of pounds from News Group. The typical payment is likely to be around £50,000, but some will far exceed that. For example, the company has already offered to pay one of Lewis’s clients – the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s family – £3m. Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers News International Roy Greenslade James Robinson guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 5, 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.