Nikki Sanderson says giving evidence in phone hacking case was ‘humiliating’

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Actress Nikki Sanderson became emotional as she described the “humiliating” process of giving evidence in her High Court claim against the Mirror’s publisher over alleged unlawful information-gathering.

Former Coronation Street star Ms Sanderson, 39, is suing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) for damages, claiming journalists at its titles – The Daily and Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People – were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.

The actress, who played Candice Stowe in the ITV soap between 1999 and 2005, finished her evidence on Monday afternoon after entering the witness box on Friday.

At the end of her evidence, she was asked by her barrister David Sherborne how being in the witness box for a day-and-a-half had felt.

Appearing tearful, after a short pause Ms Sanderson replied: “Humiliating.”

She continued: “Some of it’s really embarrassing,” adding that other parts of it were “traumatising”.

“No one wants to be in the witness box feeling as if you’re on trial,” she added.

As Ms Sanderson left the witness box on Friday, the actress was told not to discuss her evidence with anyone over the weekend.

She then said she had felt isolated during the break, adding: “(Family) can’t help because they don’t know what I’m going through.”

“It’s been a horrific experience from the start to the end,” Ms Sanderson concluded.

The actress is bringing her claim in relation to 37 articles published in Mirror titles between 1999 and 2009.

MGN has previously denied that 35 of the 37 articles involved phone hacking or unlawful information-gathering, with one article being not admitted.

During the second day of her evidence, Ms Sanderson was taken through several of the articles by MGN’s barrister, along with some examples of similar stories in non-MGN publications.

One of these stories, a short piece in the Daily Mirror from May 2005, showed Ms Sanderson and her then-boyfriend Danny Young on a beach together, which MGN say came from a photography agency.

Ms Sanderson described the photo as “unflattering”, adding: “I just don’t understand how they knew I was talking about going on holiday with my friends.”

The actress, who has also played Maxine Minniver in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks since 2012, was then taken to a front-page photoshoot she starred in with the men’s magazine Maxim in August 2005.

Ms Sanderson told the court: “I’ve chosen to do it, I’ve got control on the day, I’ve consented to it.”

Andrew Green KC, for MGN, said: “You took the view that this sort of article was good for your career.”

“This sort of article is something I consented to,” the actress replied. “I should have consent over my own life and own image, who I see.”

Ms Sanderson later told the court that she is “within my rights” to make her choices.

She continued: “I’m not public property, I’m not a commodity, I’m not an object, I’m still a human. I have the right to choose what I’m doing.”

Ms Sanderson added that having done interviews and photoshoots “doesn’t mean that the illegal activity against me is okay”.

In its trial defence, the publisher says Ms Sanderson’s claim is brought too late but “unreservedly apologises” over four payments made to private investigators which it admits are evidence of instructions to unlawfully obtain her private information.

Mr Green told the court on Friday that the evidence in Ms Sanderson’s case is “weak” and the publisher does “not accept that it establishes a case of voicemail interception” and does not show “systemic hacking” of her phone.

Ms Sanderson’s case is one of four representative claims being heard in London, alongside similar claims brought by the Duke of Sussex, Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman.