News of the World publisher pays out settlements to hacking victims

From actor Jude Law, to former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company agrees to pay damages to victims of tabloid phone-hacking.

LONDON // Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper company yesterday agreed to pay damages to 37 high-profile victims of tabloid phone-hacking, including actor Jude Law, football player Ashley Cole and former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

In the 15 settlements whose financial terms were made public, amounts generally ran into the tens of thousands of pounds - although Mr Law received £130,000 (Dh737,473) to settle claims against the now shut down News of the World tabloid and its sister paper, The Sun.

News Group Newspapers admitted that 16 articles about Law published in the News of the World between 2003 and 2006 had been obtained by phone hacking, and that the actor had also been placed under "repeated and sustained physical surveillance." The company also admitted that articles in The Sun tabloid misused Law's private information - although it didn't go so far as to admit hacking.

In a statement, Mr Law said Mr Murdoch's tabloids had been "prepared to do anything to sell their newspapers and to make money, irrespective of the impact it had on people's lives."

"I changed my phones, I had my house swept for bugs but still the information kept being published," Mr Law said. "I started to become distrustful of people close to me."

"For me this case was never about money. It was about standing up for myself and finding out what had happened. I owed it to my friends and family as well as myself to do this."

Mr Law was one of 60 people who have sued News Group Newspapers, claiming their mobile phone voicemails were hacked.

After each statement, News Group lawyer Michael Silverleaf stood to express the news company's "sincere apologies" for the damage and distress its illegal activity had caused.

The slew of settlements is one consequence of the revelations of phone-hacking and other illegal tactics at the News of the World, where journalists routinely intercepted voicemails of those in the public eye in a relentless search for scoops.

The wide-ranging scandal prompted Mr Murdoch to close the 168-year-old paper in July, and several of his senior lieutenants have since lost their jobs.

British politicians and police have also been ensnared in the scandal, which exposed the cosy relationship between senior officers, top lawmakers, and newspaper executives at Mr Murdoch's media empire. A government-commissioned inquiry set up after the scandal is currently investigating the ethics of Britain's media - and the nature of its links to police and politicians.

The settlements announced yesterday amount to more than half of the phone-hacking lawsuits facing Mr Murdoch's company, but the number of victims is estimated in the hundreds.