Phone hacking: Court slams 'disgraceful conduct' of staff as Mirror Group loses damages appeal

The decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders against charging Mirror Group journalists with phone hacking has come under mounting scrutiny after a court ruled the national newspapers’ conduct was “disgraceful”.

Court of Appeal judges dismissed the attempt by Trinity Mirror – which owns Mirror Group Newspapers – to lower record damages awarded to hacking victims earlier this year and said there were “no mitigating circumstances”.

Trinity Mirror immediately increased the cash it set aside to deal with hacking to £41m as the three Appeal Court justices unanimously backed every legal element of Mr Justice Mann’s judgment in May.

The civil trial ended with payouts of £72,500 to £260,250 awarded to a test-case group of eight victims whose voicemails were illegally accessed by journalists and senior editorial staff at MGN’s three national titles. The total damages bill for MGN, which excludes years of high-level legal costs, was £1.2m.

Ms Saunders said last week that there was “insufficient evidence” against ten Mirror journalists and editors to provide a realistic prospect of conviction in a criminal court. However the conclusions of the Appeal Court justices – who praised Mr Justice Mann’s “very detailed findings of fact”, and backed his conclusion that there was “a widespread culture of hacking extending from journalists to more senior staff” – throws the spotlight back on the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision.

An appeal against Ms Saunders’ decision has been lodged and is expected to be heard early next year.

With 80 other hacking cases already in progress against MGN, and a further 50 individuals who have lodged claims, the Appeal Court’s description of journalists responsible for “disgraceful conduct with such distressing consequences” is likely to act as a green light for further potential victims to come forward.

In contrast to Ms Saunders’ assessment that it was “not possible to determine which individuals were responsible for making specific calls”, the Appeal Court judgment said “employees of MGN” repeatedly “engaged in disgraceful actions and ransacked the respondents’ [victims’] voicemails to produce in many cases demeaning articles about wholly innocent members of the public in order to create stories for MGN’s newspapers”.

The test-case group included the actress Sadie Frost, who was awarded a record £260,250. The former England footballer Paul Gascoigne received £188,250, and the BBC executive Alan Yentob was given £85,000.

Lord Pannick QC, for the Mirror newspapers, had argued the record pay-outs should have been limited to damages for distress; that awards were disproportionate compared with personal injury sums; were disproportionate when matched against the approach adopted by the European Court of Human Rights; and that “double counting” had been allowed.

In her summary, Lady Justice Arden wrote: “MGN cannot expect this court to come to its rescue.” Trinity Mirror issued a statement to the City saying it “continued to believe that the basis used for calculating damages is incorrect and we therefore intend to appeal”.