Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed over phone hacking for the News of the World, is taking legal action against the newspaper’s publisher News International.
Mulcaire, who was jailed for six months in 2007 for intercepting messages on royal aides’ phones, has lodged papers at the High Court.
A spokeswoman for News International, which owned the now-defunct Sunday tabloid, confirmed the action was being taken, adding that “the claim will be vigorously contested”.
Neither News International or Mulcaire’s solicitor Sarah Webb, of Payne Hicks Beach, would give any further details about the nature of the action, but The Guardian reports that Mulcaire is suing “in an attempt to force the company to pay his legal bills”.
On 20 July News International announced that it would cease all such payments to Mulcaire. Earleir this week it was revealed that the company had paid £246,000 to the private investigator’s lawyers.
It has also emerged yesterday that celebrity couple Leslie Ash and Lee Chapman have settled their claim against the NoW and now plan to take legal action against other newspapers.
They took action against the paper’s publishers, News Group Newspapers, and Mr Mulcaire over fears that Ash’s voicemails had been accessed while she was recovering from a superbug in hospital in 2004.
The couple said in a statement: “We are pleased to say that our and our sons’ claims against News Group Newspapers (NGN) Limited and Mr Mulcaire have been resolved.
“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.
“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.”
News International said: “News International is committed to reaching swift and fair settlements with victims of illegal voicemail interception and has unreservedly apologised to those affected.”
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