More than two-thirds of the victims of phone hacking by the News of the World were not public figures or celebrities, according to an analysis by the Media Standards Trust.
The trust analysis – the first systematic examination of the backgrounds of the newspaper’s victims – looked at a combined sample of 303 named people who settled claims with News UK in court and 288 anonymous victims who settled claims through the News UK compensation scheme.
A total of 410 of the group analysed were not public figures or celebrities, the study found.
Of the 591 people, 257 were neither public figures nor the intended target of the News of the World’s investigation, but instead people the newspaper thought might have information about someone else.
Police estimate there are about 5,500 possible victims of News of the World phone hacking, some 1,000 of which were classed as “likely victims”.
Almost a third of those people hacked who were not a News of the World target were either the partner or ex-partner of someone the newspaper was interested in. More than one in 10 was a parent or step-parent.
Examples identified by the trust included the partners of Ukrika Johnson and Davina McCall, the ex-partners of Kate Moss, Robbie Williams and Paul Gascoigne and the parents of Charlotte Church and murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
The analysis also reveals that people working in entertainment, music or sport accounted for nearly half of those targeted by the newspaper.
Entertainment or music targets, in particular singers and soap stars, accounted for 30% of the total, while a further 14% worked in sport.
Among the hacking victims from sport and entertainment included in the analysis were singer Peter Andre, Who Wants to be a Millionaire presenter Chris Tarrant, and footballers including Peter Crouch, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney.
The next most targeted professional area was politics, accounting for 11% of targets.
Those identified by the trust as being pursued due to “tragic circumstances” including the 7/7 bombings and the relatives of murder victims accounted for 8% of hacking targets.
In just 5% of cases was the target someone suspected or convicted of a crime, while 4% of targets were police officers.
The trust also looked at 77 people who are known to have been targeted through evidence given during the hacking trial and other court cases, and 102 identified in the press and books written about the scandal.
Included in that sample combined with the 303 people named during trials were 30 politicians, 72% of which were Labour and 10% Conservative.
The report concludes: “Absent from the evidence is any indication that those hacking phones for the News of the World were concerned about, or acknowledged, the effects that this, and other forms of, intrusion were having on the victims’ lives. From testimony to the Leveson Inquiry, and subsequently to the hacking trial, we know that the intrusion had a profound effect on many of the victims.
“It led to paranoia, loss of trust, fear, breakdowns in relationships, and in some cases – when combined with associated news coverage – mental health issues and self-harm.”
