FORMER Scotland footballer Andy Gray is believed to be among four celebrities who have been given the go-ahead to continue their legal actions against the News of the World for hacking their phones.
The 55-year-old football pundit, who was recently sacked by Sky Sports for making sexist remarks, is set to sue the Sunday tabloid newspaper after it admitted illegally accessing his voicemails and those of other well-known personalities.
Yesterday, Mr Gray, actress Sienna Miller, the interior designer Kelly Hoppen and sports agent Sky Andrew were given the go-ahead by Mr Justice Vos at the High Court in London to pursue their cases.
The News of the World’s publishers News Group have set aside compensation of around £20 million to deal with the case, but it emerged yesterday that Mr Gray’s and the other test cases could create framework for action for some 91 alleged victims.
The court heard yesterday that the investigations into the four’s claims were well-advanced and covered a range of issues and levels of damage.
It emerged that Ms Miller rejected £100,000 in damages from the newspaper for hacking.
Mr Justice Vos said that the civil claims, some of which would be ready for trial by the end of the year, should not be delayed by the ongoing police investigation.
He said the issue would not be whether there was a conspiracy – which News Group denied –admitting only isolated incidents, but about whether there was interception, how much, what was done with the information and what damage was suffered.
The hearing follows a series of rulings over the disclosure of information by the Metropolitan Police and Vodafone relating to material forfeited by private detective Glenn Mulcaire who, along with News of the World reporter Clive Goodman, was jailed over royal phone taps in 2007. Applications for disclosure have been made by a number of alleged victims – including Ms Miller, actor Jude Law, former footballer Paul Gascoigne, comedian Steve Coogan and former MP George Galloway, who was present.
He later said the News of the World’s actions in phone hacking former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell amounted to “lawlessness” and said he wanted to “get to the bottom of it”.
Mr Galloway, who received an apology from the News of the World last week, was surrounded by campaigners who had gathered to call for the Government’s decision on News Corp’s proposed takeover of BSkyB to be delayed until the investigation was finished.
He described the letter of apology as a “generic expression of regret” and said it indicated that financial compensation would be offered.
Mr Galloway said he had been shown evidence by Scotland Yard a day before he received the apology which proved his phone had been hacked.
Ms Jowell was among those to receive an apology from the paper, which has written to another nine individuals asking for further evidence that their voicemail had been intercepted.
News Group’s QC argued yesterday that Ms Miller’s claim should be thrown out as she cannot win more than the £100,000 she was already offered.
Michael Silverleaf, said: “She cannot realistically recover more than we are offering.
“The civil litigation process does not exist for people to vent their feelings in public. It provides a remedy for wrongs. We have admitted the wrong and agreed to pay her the maximum sum.”
Hugh Tomlinson, QC for Ms Miller, said: “We haven’t accepted the offer and we haven’t rejected it. We are perfectly entitled to wait for 21 days to decide what to do.”
He added that money was not the primary motivation.
Last week, detectives investigating the allegations arrested Neville Thurlbeck, the News of the World’s chief reporter, and Ian Edmondson, the former head of news. On Thursday, reporter James Weatherup was questioned.
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