A victim of the 7/7 bombing whose face became one of the defining images of the 2005 attack has received an apology and “substantial damages” from the publisher of the Sun and the defunct News of the World as it seeks to clear a raft of historical phone-hacking allegations.
The Murdoch-owned News UK made a number of settlements at the high court on Thursday, including agreeing to pay damages to Davinia Douglass, at times referred to as “the woman in the mask”.
The former government minister Chris Huhne, the comedian Catherine Tate, the DJ Chris Moyles, the actor and musician Keith Allen and the former Spice Girl Melanie Chisholm, known as Mel C, are among those who also received an apology and significant damages.
Douglass started legal proceedings against News UK in June 2021, arguing that private information had been gathered about her by “deception and blagging”, including the hacking of her voicemails, which the court heard had made her “paranoid and suspicious” and caused her “considerable distress and upset”.
She said: “On a personal note, it has been a very emotional and difficult process that brought back many memories of what was a very dark and challenging period of my life. I am relieved that my claim has finally been settled.”
Through its legal team, News UK apologised for “the invasion of her privacy by individuals working for or on behalf of the News of the World. The defendant acknowledges that such activity should never have taken place and that it had no right to intrude into the private life of Ms Douglass in this way.”
Huhne, the energy and climate change secretary between 2010 and 2012, received a substantial six-figure sum for damages and legal costs and said the payment vindicated his view that News UK had targeted him “to get rid of a political opponent”.
He said Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation had been “out to get him” after he called for a renewed police investigation that led to the conviction of the former News of the World editor Andy Coulson in 2014.
“Searching for political kompromat, spying on government ministers for commercial gain and knowingly telling repeated lies to maintain sales and ratings should all be utterly unacceptable in any responsible media organisation, yet are the stock in trade of the two Murdoch media companies,” he said.
Responding to the statement, a spokesperson for News UK said Huhne had made “serious allegations which are denied”.
They said: “Mr Huhne had the right to go to trial but chose to negotiate a financial settlement and to settle his legal action rather than have these allegations tested at trial. It is strongly denied that there was any corporate motive or direction to obtain information unlawfully. Huhne was a senior politician and stories published were legitimate and in the public interest.”
Huhne is not the first minister to settle with News UK. In 2011 the former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell accepted a £200,000 settlement over the hacking of her phone. The former Labour deputy leader John Prescott settled with the organisation in 2012.
Other payouts were made to Tate’s ex-partner Twig Clark, the DJ and presenter Jason Griffiths, known as Jason King, the model Catalina Guirado, the Gavin and Stacey actor Mathew Horne, the actor Rafferty Law, and the former Boyzone member Shane Lynch.
The settlements come before a hearing of the Duke of Sussex’s damages claim against News UK, the publisher of the Sun, which is scheduled for January.
News UK has accepted that phone hacking was widespread at the News of the World during the 2000s, but it has always insisted that the Sun, edited by Rebekah Brooks during much of this period, was not involved in illegality.
A spokesperson for News Group Newspapers (NGN), part of News UK, said it had made an “unreserved apology” to victims of voicemail interception by the News of the World and paid damages to those with “proper claims” since.
They said: “As we reach the tail end of litigation, NGN is drawing a line under disputed matters, some of which date back [to] more than 20 years ago. In some cases it has made commercial sense for both parties to come to a settlement agreement before trial to bring a resolution to the matter.”
They added that News UK did not accept liability or make any admissions to claims regarding the Sun for these or any future claims.
