Phone hacking: Jude Law 'targeted by senior News of the World executive'
Jude Law was targeted by a "very senior News of the World executive" in the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed the News International paper, the actor's lawyer claimed today.
Hugh Tomlinson QC said Law was of "long-term interest to the News of the World" and claimed "a very senior News of the World executive" ordered private detective Glenn Mulcaire to hack into Law's phone.
Tomlinson said the seniority of the executive allegedly involved could be "an important or decisive factor" when it came to apportioning blame or assessing damages.
A spokesperson for News International denied that the senior News International executive, named in court documents but whose identity has not been made public, had been involved in targeting the actor.
"Now that we have seen the disclosure we believe it is entirely false that the named executive is implicated in the alleged voicemail interception of Jude Law," the spokesperson said.
Law was named today, along with Labour MP Chris Bryant, in a group of five test cases who will be the first to have their legal action over alleged phone hacking at the paper heard by the high court.
The five also include former Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray, agent Sky Andrew and interior designer Kelly Hoppen.
Sienna Miller, the actor, was due to be among those whose case was heard until she accepted a £100,000 settlement from the newspaper last week.
High court judge Mr Justice Vos said the level of damages awarded would be determined in part by who at News Group owner News International ordered Mulcaire to hack into voicemail messages.
"The question of exemplary damages is determined by profit," Vos said.
"It's one thing for a journalist to say 'I'm desperate to get a story'. It's another thing for the chief executive of a company to say 'I'm desperate to make more money by getting stories in this evil way'.
"Was there a conspiracy between Mulcaire and News Group Newspapers to intercept voicemail messages? The answer is yes there was. Was it an agreement between the board of directors of NGN? ... I will have to determine the answer."
The court was told the test cases were selected to reflect different categories of claim which are likely to result in different levels of damages being awarded.
A secondary list of five claimants has also been drawn up in the event that further people drop out.
They include comedian Steve Coogan, former footballer Paul Gascoigne, Max Clifford's former assistant Nicola Phillips, ex-MP George Galloway and Mary-Ellen Field, former adviser to model Elle Macpherson.
The judge said Bryant should be included because a number of politicians had brought claims and the kind of damages involved in such cases were likely to be different.
He said Gray's case was useful because it was admitted there was an article written about him as a result of a message he left, so the court would not have to determine whether material was obtained by normal journalistic methods, as it might have to do in Hoppen's case.
He added that Andrew's case has been selected as it was admitted in the criminal prosecution that he was the subject of interception, and was an example of someone about whom no article was published but who attracted interest because of the people he acted for.
Although News Corporation has offered to settle several cases in which there have been allegations of hacking, teh publisher also says that many of the stories run about the claimants were obtained through legitimate journalistic means.
The cases are expected to be heard next year.
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