The tabloid News of the World is about to get sued again, and maybe by a whole host of aggrieved celebrities. The latest is Paul Gascoigne, whose attorney said that he would instigate proceedings within days. Mr. Gascoigne’s complaint is exacerbated, according to attorney Gerald Shamash, because the phone hacking has undermined the former footballer’s efforts to overcome drug and alcohol problems. Shamash said that believing his private voicemail has been tapped is no help to Gascoigne’s state of mind.
According to the Observer, comedian Steve Coogan is already taking action against the newspaper, and other celebrity names are on the list of potential claimants. Jockey Kieren Fallon and TV presenter Chris Tarrant have both indicated that they plan to sue the paper’s publishers as well as the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who supposedly tapped hundreds of mobile phone accounts while he was working for News of the World.
The ‘rogue’ reporter Clive Goodman, the one News of the World claims is the only reporter involved in the phone hacking, was jailed for four months in 2007 after it was determined that he had tapped voicemail left for aides of Princes William and Charles, amongst others. Mulcaire served a six-month sentence on the same charges. However, further investigation revealed by Scotland Yard has confirmed that Mulcaire had at least 91 voicemail PIN’s in his possession.
Andy Coulson, now the Prime Minister’s communications chief, was editor of the newspaper when the phone hacking was discovered, and he quit the paper in 2007, saying that he took responsibility even though he had no knowledge of the illegal activity. The Crown Prosecution Service announced that a new investigation is underway to determine just who the injured parties are and when the invasion of privacy took place. The paper has already settled out of court on four other claims in this regard, including a reported £1 million to celebrity publicist Max Clifford.