Hacking costs Trinity Mirror £1.2m

TRINITY Mirror must pay £1.2 million (R22m) to eight celebrities after a London judge said that there was “substantial” phone hacking at the company’s newspapers. Former England soccer star Paul Gascoigne would receive £188 000 in damages while actress Sadie Frost would get £260 000, Judge George Mann said yesterday. “Most if not all had their phones hacked twice a day for a period of years,” Mann said. The award may be the first civil damages decision in any phone-hacking claim since the scandal was triggered by allegations made against News Corporation newspapers almost a decade ago. The firm avoided a civil trial by settling hundreds of lawsuits filed by celebrities, athletes and politicians. – Bloomberg