THE RUPERT Murdoch-owned News of The Worldis set to face compensation demands for over £100 million for the illegal interception of voicemail messages to politicians, sportspeople and TV stars, lawyers now say.
The number of parties threatening to sue the newspaper jumped significantly following the resignation of former News of the Worldeditor Andy Coulson in January as head of communications for British prime minister David Cameron.
In 2007, the newspaper’s then-royal correspondent Clive Goodman, and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, were jailed after they pleaded guilty to intercepting messages meant for staff in Prince Charles’s Clarence House.
Despite settling a number of cases, the Sunday tabloid has recently lodged defences against the claims made by a number of celebrities, insisting it did not know of the activities of the two men.
Solicitor Mark Lewis, who obtained £700,000 in compensation for Gordon Taylor, former executive of the Professional Footballers Association, has now issued letters of action on behalf of Irish jockey Kieren Fallon and TV presenter Chris Tarrant.
He has also asked the Metropolitan Police, which has reopened its investigation into the hacking allegations, for information on whether six other clients had their privacy infringed, including former England football manager Sven Goran Eriksson.
"There has been no new offering by the News of the World since Rupert Murdoch was last in the country [in January] – nothing that is designed or capable of acceptance," Mr Lewis told The Irish Timesyesterday.
Since Mr Coulson’s resignation from Downing Street, 70 people have called on the Metropolitan Police to reveal any evidence that the tabloid intercepted their voicemails. Forty-five more have launched, or are about to launch, civil proceedings against News International for alleged breach of privacy.
The scandal has already cost News International, which has settled four cases out of court, upwards of £2 million in compensation and legal bills, but Mr Lewis predicted this will be a fraction of the final bill.
“It could reach £50 million, £100 million, even £150 million. We still do not know how many people there are who will come forward,” Mr Lewis said. “They are still serving defences on the basis that there isn’t evidence to back up the claims.”
The Metropolitan Police has been roundly criticised for its investigation, particularly for deciding not to pursue further prosecutions even though detectives found more than 4,000 names, nearly 3,000 telephone numbers and 91 voicemail PIN numbers in Mulcaire’s records.
Following checks of mobile telephone records, detectives contacted an undisclosed number of those individuals in the last week to assure them that their messages had not been not intercepted by Mulcaire, who was paid a £100,000- a-year retainer from the tabloid.
Alastair Campbell, communications director of former British prime minister Tony Blair, has recently joined the list of people threatening legal action, along with former Tottenham Hotspur footballer Paul Gascoigne.
