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Derry's Nadine Coyle made her name with Girls Aloud. Picture by Ian West
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Mark Tighe
Nadine Coyle, the Derry-born singer, has lodged a High Court claim for damages against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) over alleged hacking of her personal voicemails.
The case was lodged in London on Thursday where NGN is facing a new wave of litigation over alleged historic phone hacking by journalists at The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.
Shoosmiths law-firm, which is representing Coyle, confirmed its client’s claim against NGN is a part of the ongoing Mobile Telephone Voicemail Interception Litigation (MTVIL), which is being overseen by Judge Timothy Fancourt.
It is understood Coyle has taken the case over articles published in both newspapers after discussions with NGN failed to reach an agreed settlement.
Coyle shot to fame in Ireland in the reality show Popstars in 2001 where she was disqualified for being too young after she had misrepresented her age.
She later won a place in the Girls Aloud pop group in the UK on Popstars: The Rivals. Coyle enjoyed chart-topping successes with the band before going solo.
Her action is the most recent of 19 new phone hacking cases that court-monitoring package VizLegal shows have been filed in London against NGN since July 20.
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Murdoch’s NGN paid out £49m in legal fees and damages relating to historical phone hacking allegations in the year to June 27, 2021. The cost was £80m in the previous year. In March, NGN failed in a High Court bid to set a July 29 deadline for any new claims to be included in the managed litigation scheme overseen by Mr Justice Fancourt.
The MTVIL scheme has involved more than 1,000 claims filed in tranches since April 2011. All have settled before reaching trial.
Of the lots, the first, from April 2011 to February 27, 2012 involved 64 claims. The second tranche ran from February 28, 2012, to July 4, 2014, and had 230 issued claims. The third, from September 5, 2015, to March 23, 2019, had 91.
The fourth and current tranche opened on March 26, 2019 and continues with 164 issued claims up to last March; 277 claims settled at pre-action stage. It closes on Thursday.
NGN has previously made out-of-court settlements with Paul Gascoigne and Sienna Miller.
Claims filed in recent weeks include a case brought by Kristina Kyracou, who was communications secretary for King Charles between 2009 and 2016 when he was Prince of Wales.
Cases have been filed by TV presenter Clare Balding; Natasha Lever, the former sister-in-law of Ryan Giggs; Sam Mendes, the stage and film director; and Marc Bannerman, the Irish-born former EastEnders actor.
Tom Watson, the former UK Labour deputy leader, and radio presenter Chris Moyles have also sued in recent weeks, as has Raye Cosbert, Any Winehouse’s former promoter.
Phil Tufnell, the former English cricketer and winner of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2003, and his wife Dawn, filed separate actions in August. Gary Kemp, the lead guitarist of Spandau Ballet, filed a hacking claim this month.
NGN has never accepted liability for voicemail interception by The Sun. It declined to comment on the cases filed by Ms Coyle and others.
In his March ruling, Mr Justice Fancourt declined to set a final cut-off date to enter MTVIL because “there is a continuous stream of new claims being issued which does not appear to be abating”. He said more people were finding they may have been hacked through discovery released in other cases.
Mirror Group Newspapers has also faced a series of claims over alleged phone hacking.
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