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  1. Media Law
January 18, 2018

Actor David Tennant among nine phone hacking claims settled by News Group Newspapers

By Freddy Mayhew

Phone hacking claims against News Group Newspapers brought by nine people, including actor David Tennant, have been settled in the High Court.

News Group, publisher of the Sun titles, will pay damages and costs to the nine individuals, who were represented by law firm Collyer Bristow.

Also among them was former athlete Colin Jackson.

The claims involved a “range of allegations including unlawful phone hacking and so-called ‘blagging’ of personal information by private investigators, a spokesperson for the law firms said.

In some of these cases, apologies from News Group will be read in open court, they said.

Steven Heffer, partner and head of media and privacy at Collyer Bristow, has now acted for more than 200 victims of phone hacking since the first wave of litigation against News Group began almost seven years ago.

He said: “We are glad to have successfully settled these claims, which allows these nine individuals to finally move on from a very distressing issue. However, more than 50 other claims are still expected to go ahead against News Group Newspapers.

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“This was inevitable once News Group closed down its compensation scheme in 2013, despite a huge number of claims still being outstanding.”

Picture: Reuters/Fred Prouser

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