Tabloids on Trial: Hugh Grant 'determined to exact justice' on tabloid bosses
Actor Hugh Grant spoke to ITV News Correspondent Rebecca Barry about the tabloid he believes commissioned unlawful invasions of his privacy
Hugh Grant has told ITV News he remains "bitter and determined to exact justice" on those in the newspaper industry he believes commissioned unlawful activity to invade his privacy.
Appearing in a new ITV documentary - Tabloids On Trial - the actor speaks for the first time about his recent settlement with The Sun newspaper.
Prince Harry, Charlotte Church, Paul Gascoigne and Gordon Brown also feature in the programme which airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Thursday.
I’ve been reporting on the phone hacking scandal for more than a decade, but Grant tells me "this isn’t only about phone hacking."
"There were microphones in window boxes outside the house. There were trackers, microphones dropped into my car.
"There were medical records of me, the mothers of my children and ex-girlfriends - all blagged and stolen out of the NHS. And perhaps most spectacularly the burglary of both my flat and my office."
He made these claims in his recent High Court civil case against News Group Newspapers (NGN), the publisher of The Sun. NGN has always strongly denied the allegations.
"In the case of my flat burglary, it was quite spectacular," Grant explained, "the whole door had been taken off its hinges, they'd been through the flat and nothing was stolen."
"They'd been there to get information and a lot of information about the interior and the contents of my flat appeared in newspapers a couple of days later."
The actor and campaigner said he reluctantly settled out-of-court with News Group Newspapers for "an enormous sum" of money, because civil litigation rules mean even if he had won at trial he could have faced a £10 million bill.
The publisher of The Sun settled without any admission of liability.
“If you're innocent, why do you shove so much money at someone not to go to court?" asks Grant.
On the matter, News Group Newspapers told ITV News: "In some disputed cases, it has made commercial sense to come to a settlement agreement before trial to bring a resolution to the matter."
Grant said he does not "hold massive grievances against the foot soldiers," but added he remains "bitter and determined to exact justice on the executives who commissioned this stuff."
It has been almost two decades since the phone hacking scandal broke, but despite apologies and more than £1 billion spent on legal fees and pay-outs by two of Britain’s biggest newspaper groups - for many victims the pain endures.
For Charlotte Church, it began when she was a teenager. “From the ages of 15 to 21, I had an inescapable abuser: the press," Church said.
At 16-years-old the singer was being hacked by the News of the World.
She described her "paranoia and anxiety" as she and her family would wonder "have they got microphones in our house?"
Church said her mother was preyed upon even as she experienced a mental health crisis.
"My mother was already an incredibly vulnerable woman. Her mental health was really bad. And I'd found her after taking an overdose, and so she was in a really bad way and that was straight in the press.
"It was horrific. She's never been able to fully come back from the abuse that she suffered." In 2012, News Group Newspapers - the publisher of the now defunct News of the World -paid substantial damages to Church and her family and offered its "sincere apologies".
But back in the early 2000s even national heroes became victims.
Paul Gascoigne is widely regarded as one of the best footballers England has ever produced, but in an emotional interview he said phone hacking made him so paranoid he became a "recluse," too scared to speak to anyone.
The former footballer broke down in tears as he told me he even suspected his own parents of selling stories to the papers.
"I was just speaking to my mum and dad, just them - and the next day it came out in the papers. So I went mad. I said, what the f*** are you speaking to the papers for?
"They said I haven't spoken to them. I said, you have. You're the only two I've spoken to. I love my mum and dad, so the thought they were hacking us wasn't good."
Gascoigne sued Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) - who in 2015 were ordered to pay damages, publicly admitted the wrongdoing and apologised.
A claim against the News of the World was settled with a full apology in 2012, and a later claim in 2021 against The Sun was settled without admission of liability.
Other allegations reach the very heart of power. Gordon Brown, who was Prime Minister between 2007 and 2010, told the programme he believes some of his personal information including bank accounts were illegally accessed by News Group Newspapers while he was in senior government positions.
"My bank account was broken into, my building society account was broken into, my gas bill, my electricity bill.
"I know that they tried to get information from the police computer about me. All these things happened to me during the period I was chancellor and prime minister." Brown first accused News Group Newspapers of the unlawful information gathering when he gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry in 2012. It is strongly denied by the newspaper group.
He, like Prince Harry, is now calling for fresh criminal investigations.
News Group Newspapers statement:
In response to allegations included in Tabloids On Trial, NGN said: "In 2011 an apology was published by News Group Newspapers to victims of voicemail interception by the News of the World.
"The company publicly committed to paying financial compensation and since then has paid settlements to those with proper claims.
"In some disputed cases, it has made commercial sense to come to a settlement agreement before trial to bring a resolution to the matter.
"As we reach the tail end of the litigation News Group Newspapers is drawing a line under the disputed matters. The civil proceedings have been running for more than a decade and deal with events 13-28 years ago.
"It is common practice and indeed encouraged in litigation to seek to settle claims outside court where both parties agree without the cost of a trial."
Mirror Group Newspapers statement:
In response to the programme Mirror Group Newspapers said: "We welcomed the judgment in December 2023 that gave the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago.
"Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid compensation."
Tabloids On Trial airs on ITV1 and ITVX at 9pm on Thursday, July 25
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