Hugh Grant gets court approval to sue Sun publisher

[ad_1]

Tom Symonds, Home Affairs Correspondent, May 26, 2023, 11:07 GMT

Updated 5 minutes ago

photo caption,

The Supreme Court ruled that some of the lawsuits were brought too late to move forward

Hugh Grant obtained permission to sue the publisher of The Sun newspaper for using wiretapping and wiretapping against him.

A judge rejected an attempt by News Group Newspapers (NGN) to block his legal action because he had not filed it within six years.

The actor claims that private investigators working for The Sun tapped his phone, bugged his home and car, and burgled his home to get stories on him.

The publisher denies the allegations.

Grant was denied permission to sue over the interception of his phone voicemails after a judge decided he could have filed a phone hacking case much earlier.

Some of the evidence against the newspaper was contained in a statement given by private investigator Gavin Burroughs.

A similar legal argument centered on the Duke of Sussex’s claims is due to be heard by the High Court in July.

NGN said it was “delighted that the Supreme Court, following our request, has ruled that Mr. Grant is legally barred from bringing a phone hacking suit against The Sun.”

“NGN vigorously denies the various historical allegations of illegal information gathering made in the remainder of Mr. Grant’s claim.”

Hugh Grant’s statement in the case alleges that parent company News UK lied for years about its involvement in phone hacking and illegal information gathering.

He said the company had “a broad, long-term and deliberate strategic plan of false denials and other concealment with respect to Sun, to prevent me, and others in a similar situation, from bringing claims against them”.

This included, he said, false denials of Leveson’s investigation into the Press Standards, the Press Complaints Authority, and into public statements.

Cases of this nature must be filed in civil courts within six years, and this time limitation has become a major legal battleground in cases against newspapers, because allegations of wrongdoing often go back 30 years.

The publishers are trying to argue that the cases will not go to trial because the alleged victims of the illegal news gatherings have delayed their legal proceedings.

In his ruling, Judge Fancourt said Hugh Grant had long believed that private investigators were paid to look into his private life.

But it was only in 2021 when News Group Newspapers disclosed its payment bills that Mr. Grant had potential evidence capable of allowing him to win his case in court.

This ruling does not mean that the question of whether Mr. Grant’s claim is made is too late, but that it will now be considered at trial next year.

The judge said there was a realistic chance for the actor to prove at trial that before seeing this evidence he “could not have believed with sufficient confidence that he might have been targeted by master researchers with instructions from The Sun”.

[ad_2]