Coronation Street actor Antony Cotton settles phone hacking case against publisher of The Sun

The actor who plays Sean Tully in Coronation Street has settled his phone hacking case against the publisher of The Sun newspaper.

The ITV star has been paid what was described as "substantial damages" by News Group Newspapers.

The group apologised for the "distress" caused to the actor, who was referred to in court by both his stage name Antony Cotton and his real name, Antony Dunn.

Cotton's lawyers said that "his voicemail messages were hacked into," by the newspapers' journalists and therefore they would have been "privy to personal messages left on his mobile phone, or left by him for others such as family and friends."

The actor plays Sean Tully in the long-running popular ITV soap. Credit: PA

The hearing in the High Court of Justice was told that Cotton he had been targeted "to find out personal information about him for publication".

They also claimed that journalists from The Sun and the now-closed News of the World "obtained his personal information by deception and other unlawful means".

The actor has starred in Coronation Street since 2003 and had previously appeared in the British version of the drama Queer as Folk.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) acknowledged that the activity should not have taken place and that "it had no right to intrude into Mr Cotton's private life in this way."

The star pictured with fellow Coronation Street actors William Roache and Barbara Knox. Credit: PA

But NGN has made "no admission of liability" in relation to Mr Cotton's claims of phone hacking.

Two other cases were also heard this morning involving the actor Mark Womack and an TV executive, Natalka Znak, who worked on ITV shows such as Love Island and I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.

There are a total of 49 legal cases still on going against NGN - one of which has been filed by the Duke of Sussex who is also taking action against Mirror Group Newspapers over allegations of phone hacking.