FORMER This Morning presenter John Leslie has accepted substantial damages after his phone was hacked by the News of the World during the controversy over unfounded allegations he was a rapist.
Leslie, whose career was wrecked after his name was linked to claims he attacked Ulrika Jonsson on live television by another presenter, is to receive legal costs and a public apology from News Group Newspapers (NGN).
The Scot, who is now a property developer and DJ for Edinburgh-based Castle FM radio, was, according to his counsel Jeremy Reed, "targeted by the News of the World because of a number of well-publicised allegations concerning his private life".
At the High Court in London, Mr Reed said Leslie was "deeply angry and upset to discover that, owing to the deliberate destruction of documents by the News of the World, he will never find out the true extent to which his privacy was invaded".
He added that NGN "has now accepted responsibility for its unlawful actions and has, quite rightly, agreed to apologise to the claimant".
Leslie was joined by former Tory MP Neil Hamilton and his wife Christine in settling claims against the publisher.
The couple were questioned by police over unfounded sex attack allegations and embroiled in a similar media storm to Leslie's.
Political adviser Matthew Doyle also received a sum in damages, his legal costs and an apology from the publishers of the now- defunct News of the World.
Mr Justice Vos was also told that claims brought by the estate of the late Jade Goody, the reality TV star who died of cancer in 2009, and TV producer Nigel Lythgoe had been settled, but no details were given.
Reading from agreed statements, Mr Reed said the Hamiltons began proceedings last year "for misuse of private information and breach of confidence in respect of obtaining their call data by unlawful means".
It emerged 149 out of 167 actions originally on the register had been settled, with eight further claims seeking to be added.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article