U.K. Tabloid Ordered to Pay $1.88 Million to Phone-Hacking Victims

LONDON—A unit of newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror PLC on Thursday was ordered to pay compensation to eight celebrities whose voicemails were intercepted by its journalists, a practice known as phone hacking.

The High Court in London ordered MGN Ltd., the publisher of The Daily Mirror and People newspaper titles, to pay a total of around £1.2 million ($1.88 million) to the eight phone-hacking victims. Among the claimants was Sadie Frost, the former wife of the actor Jude Law, who was awarded £260,250. The former soccer player Paul Gascoigne was awarded £188,250 and British Broadcasting Corporation executive Alan Yentob will receive £85,000.

The judge hearing the case said the claimants suffered "serious infringement of their privacy rights."

In a statement, Trinity Mirror said while it accepted it should pay "approproiate compensation" to the victims, it was considering whether to appeal the judgement.

"Our initial view of the lengthy judgment is that the basis used for calculating damages is incorrect," it said.

Trinity Mirror competes with News Corp, the owner of Dow Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. News Corp also owns the Times of London, the Sunday Times and the Sun, and its U.K. newspaper-publishing business has been engulfed in its own phone-hacking scandal. The scandal led to the closure of the company's former tabloid The News of the World.

Write to Rory Gallivan at [e-mail]

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