According to Yahoo, the renowned Coronation Street actor, Michael Le Vell has settled a claim in the high court against News of the World over hacking and misusing his phone. The actor took action against News Group Newspapers (NGN) earlier this year in May, his claim was that journalists had “hacked” into his voicemails.
However, Michael Le Vell settled the case by taking an undisclosed amount in damages and legal fees from NGN in turn accessing and misusing his private data in the month of August.
Gabrielle Shovlin, his solicitor told the court in a remote meeting on Monday, “because of his work as well as his friendships with a number of other high-profile individuals, the claimant was an obvious person for the defendant to target”.
As per Shovlin, Michael Le Vell claimed that his voice messages had been accessed by NGN journalists, as well as “Obtained his personal information by deception and other unlawful means through certain of its journalists within the News of the World and The Sun and its other agents”.
The claim was settled by NGN as the actor agreed for an off the court agreement. Mr. Justice Mann stated, “On the basis that NGN makes no admission of liability in relation to Mr. Turner’s allegations of voicemail interception and/or other unlawful information gathering at The Sun”.
As per ScreenBinge’s analysis, “No name has been found yet to be responsible for the hacking activity as News agencies hire or purchase such data from the Dark Web”.
NGN was represented by Ben Silverstone, stating, “NGN is here today, through me, to offer its apologies to Mr. Turner for the distress caused to him by the invasion of his privacy by individuals working for or on behalf of the News of the World. The defendant acknowledges that such activity should never have taken place and that it had no right to intrude into Mr. Turner’s private life in this way.”
After the hearing, Mr. Le Vell’s solicitor, Duncan Lamont from Charles Russell Speechlys, said “We are pleased that we could assist our client in resolving his dispute with NGN and that the publisher has made a public apology to our client.”
