Eight phone hacking victims in the UK won a total settlement of close to two million U.S. dollars from Mirror Group Newspapers.
The victims who won settlements are actors Shane Richie, Shobna Gulati, Lucy Taggart and Sadie Frost; athlete Paul Gascoigne; executive Alan Yentob; producer Robert Ashworth; and flight attendant Lauren Alcorn, the UK Telegraph reported.
Frost’s settlement of £260,250 (around $408,000 U.S.) is “what is believed to be the single biggest privacy damages payout since the phone hacking scandal broke in 2010,” the Guardian reported.
Mirror Group Newspapers publishes the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror. It has been on trial for eight cases, as iMediaEthics has previously reported.
The Mirror sent iMediaEthics the following statement about today’s ruling saying that the company is willing to pay “full, fair and proper compensation” but that the ruling called for too much money. The statement reads in full:
“Trinity Mirror notes the judgment released today by Justice Mann. We have said all along that we would pay full, fair and proper compensation to the claimants and that is not in dispute. However, damages need to be proportionate to compensation awarded in previous cases of physical and mental suffering. We are currently reviewing the judgment, which is of some length, however our current view is that the basis used for calculating the damages is incorrect, and as such we are considering whether to seek permission to appeal.”
The judge called the Mirror Group Newspapers’ hacking “very substantial indeed,” according to the Telegraph.
The lawyer for three of the victims, Taylor Hamptons’ Daniel Taylor, said after the ruling:
“Today’s judgment represents a milestone in the development of privacy law in the UK and the awarding of six-figure damages is truly historic and unparalleled, on a scale much greater than has ever been awarded previously.”
In February, the Mirror published a print apology to its phone hacking victims and said it stopped hacking. In January, the Mirror settled five other phone hacking lawsuits.
UPDATED: 5/21/2015 11:51 AM EST With statement from the Mirror