Hugh Grant settles lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch rag (and explains why, even though he's confident they'd be found guilty of a load of heinous shit)

Strings · Apr 17, 2024

Twitter thread here:

View: https://twitter.com/HackedOffHugh/status/1780549406388888022

And offered as an easy to read quote for your pleasure:

For anyone who has been interested in my lawsuit against the Sun, the news is that I've had to settle my claim out of court before it gets to trial. A thread...

News Group are claiming they are entirely innocent of the things I had accused the Sun of doing - phone hacking, unlawful information gathering, landline tapping, the burglary of my flat and office, the bugging of my car, the illegal blagging of medical records, lies, perjury and the destruction of evidence. As is common with entirely innocent people, they are offering me an enormous sum of money to keep this matter out of court.

I don't want to accept this money or settle. I would love to see all the allegations that they deny tested in court. But the rules around civil litigation mean that if I proceed to trial and the court awards me damages that are even a penny less than the settlement offer, I would have to pay the legal costs of both sides. My lawyers tell me that that is exactly what would most likely happen here. Rupert Murdoch's lawyers are very expensive. So even if every allegation is proven in court, I would still be liable for something approaching £10 million in costs. I'm afraid I am shying at that fence.

Rupert Murdoch has spent over £1billon in damages to claimants and in lawyers' fees, settling over 1500 claims in this way. He seems remarkably determined that there shouldn't be a trial of the facts. Murdoch's settlement money has a stink and I refuse to let this be hush money. I have spent the best part of 12 years fighting for a free press that does not distort the truth, abuse ordinary members of the public or hold elected MPs to ransom in pursuit of newspaper barons' personal profit and political power. So this money will repurposed via groups like Hacked Off into the general campaign to expose the worst excesses of our oligarch-owned press.

I'd like to thank my legal team, Anjlee Sangani, David Sherborne, Evan Harris and Dan Waddell. I'd also like to thank the courageous whistle-blowers who came over from the other side, and other brave witnesses who are providing much of the evidence, including Dan Evans, Emma Jones, Steve Whittamore, Danno Hanks and Glenn Mulcaire. I particularly want to acknowledge the work and sacrifices of Graham Johnson in the face of unfair attacks from those on the other side who are seeking to stop the truth coming out.

End of thread.

If you're unaware of the bullshit pulled by these outlets and the fallout:

Investigations conducted from 2005 to 2007 showed that the paper's phone hacking activities were targeted at celebrities, politicians, and members of the British royal family. In July 2011 it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings had also been hacked.

While the allegations regarding the News of the World continued to receive coverage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared, for example, on BBC Radio 4) it was only with the revelation that the voicemail of murdered Milly Dowler had been hacked, and evidence for her murder enquiry had been deleted, that the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage.

The former Managing Editor of The Sun Graham Dudman, Head of News Chris Pharo, Crime Editor Mike Sullivan and former Deputy Editor Fergus Shanahan are all arrested.

The Sun picture editor John Edwards, senior reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker, reporter John Sturgis and deputy editor Geoff Webster, as well as a serving British Army major, his wife who works for the Ministry of Defence, and a serving police officer are all arrested.

Rupert Murdoch flies to London to meet staff from The Sun who are angry at the arrests.

Andy Coulson is arrested over alleged phone hacking and making illegal payments to police. Clive Goodman is also arrested on suspicion of making illegal payments to police.

Sir Paul Stephenson resigns as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.

John Yates resigns as Assistant Commissioner (Specialist Operations).

Former News of the World reporter and the first to allege phone hacking at the publication, Sean Hoare, is found dead at his home in Hertfordshire.

Former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner arrested.

Former News of the World news editor Greg Miskiw arrested.

Former News of the World US editor James Desborough arrested.

Former News of the World reporter Dan Evans arrested.

News International phone hacking scandal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Murder of Milly Dowler - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Timeline of the News Corporation scandal - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

... And so on. And if you're wondering how Hugh Grant is involved in all of this - well, that's a long story, but he managed to secretly record a conversation with someone who bragged about doing all this shit and then wrote an article about it (excerpts of the taped conversation are included):

When I broke down in my midlife crisis car in remotest Kent just before Christmas, a battered white van pulled up on the far carriageway. To help, I thought. But when the driver got out he started taking pictures with a long-lens camera. He came closer to get better shots and I swore at him. Then he offered me a lift the last few miles to my destination. I suspected his motives and swore at him some more. (I'm not entirely sympathetic towards paparazzi.) Then I realised I couldn't get a taxi and was late. So I had to accept the lift.

He turned out to be an ex-News of the World investigative journalist and paparazzo, now running a pub in Dover. He still kept his camera in the car's glove box for just this kind of happy accident.

More than that, he was Paul McMullan, one of two ex-NoW hacks who had blown the whistle (in the Guardian and on Channel 4's Dispatches) on the full extent of phone-hacking at the paper, particularly under its former editor Andy Coulson. This was interesting, as I had been a victim – a fact he confirmed as we drove along. He also had an unusual defence of the practice: that phone-hacking was a price you had to pay for living in a free society.

Me So, how's the whistleblowing going?
Him I'm trying to get a book published. I sent it off to a publisher who immediately accepted it and then it got legal and they said, "This is never going to get published."
Me Why? Because it accuses too many people of crime?
Him Yes, as I said to the parliamentary commission, Coulson knew all about it and regularly ordered it . . . He [Coulson] rose quickly to the top; he wanted to cover his tracks all the time. So he wouldn't just write a story about a celeb who'd done something. He'd want to make sure they could never sue, so he wanted us to hear the celeb like you on tape saying, "Hello, darling, we had lovely sex last night." So that's on tape – OK, we've got that and so we can publish . . . Historically, the way it went was, in the early days of mobiles, we all had analogue mobiles and that was an absolute joy. You know, you just . . . sat outside Buckingham Palace with a £59 scanner you bought at Argos and get Prince Charles and everything he said.

Me So everyone knew? I mean, would Rebekah Wade have known all this stuff was going on?
Him Good question. You're not taping, are you?
Me [slightly shrill voice] No.
Him Well, yeah. Clearly she . . . took over the job of [a journalist] who had a scanner who was trying to sell it to members of his own department. But it wasn't a big crime. [NB: Rebekah Brooks has always denied any knowledge of phone-hacking. The current police investigation is into events that took place after her editorship of the News of the World.] It started off as fun – you know, it wasn't against the law, so why wouldn't you? And it was only because the MPs who were fiddling their expenses and being generally corrupt kept getting caught so much they changed the law in 2001 to make it illegal to buy and sell a digital scanner. So all we were left with was – you know – finding a blag to get your mobile [records] out of someone at Vodafone. Or, when someone's got it, other people swap things for it.

Me But don't you think that all these prime ministers deliberately try to get the police to drag their feet about investigating the whole [phone-hacking] thing because they don't want to upset Murdoch?
Him Yeah. There's that . . . You also work a lot with policemen as well . . . One of the early stories was [and here he names a much-loved TV actress in her sixties] used to be a street walker – whether or not she was, but that's the tip.

Me And where are these tapes and transcripts? Do you think they've been destroyed?
Him No, I'm sure they're saving them till they retire.
Me So did you personally ever listen to my voice messages?
Him No, I didn't personally ever listen to your voice messages. I did quite a lot of stories on you, though. You were a very good earner at times.

The bugger, bugged

After a chance meeting with a former News of the World executive who told him his phone had been hacked, Hugh Grant couldn’t resist going back to him – with a hidden tape recorder – to find out if there was more to the story. . .

www.newstatesman.com

Try and bankrupt me with legal fees if old I suppose.

Altazor · Apr 17, 2024

Fuck The S*n. Fuck that shitrag and Rupert Murdoch.

L Thammy · Apr 17, 2024

Never heard of this happening but the explanation makes sense to me. I know that the idea of having to pay both legal fees is specifically meant to cool frivolous lawsuits by making it harder, but I also know that the legal system being so expensive enables rich parties to try to beat others just by dragging out the process past the point that they can afford. Sounds like keeping expensive lawyers to drive up the risk for anyone who sues them is just another avenue for them to exploit the system.

Ingueferroque · Apr 17, 2024

That seems like an insane loophole for wealthy elite to exploit.

flatearthpandas · Apr 17, 2024

I shouldn't be surprised that such a shitty legal loophole exists to prevent things going to court but here we are.

Daphne · Apr 17, 2024

It's always incredibly dispiriting to be reminded of how our systems are designed by and for the benefit of the oligarchs. Even someone as relatively wealthy as Hugh Grant can't stand up to them. Good on him for donating the settlement to the cause.

Looking briefly at the arrests, it seems most were never charged and those that were either got plea deals or were cleared, often in directed verdicts. There's a lot of "to be tried in 2013" in the wiki too. Not sure what happened there. Overall it seems the Met, who were in charge, did their usual terrible job.

Sho_Nuff82 · Apr 17, 2024

Daphne said:
It's always incredibly dispiriting to be reminded of how our systems are designed by and for the benefit of the oligarchs. Even someone as relatively wealthy as Hugh Grant can't stand up to them. Good on him for donating the settlement to the cause.

Yeah it seems like a system ripe for exploitation to tell people "you'd better avoid trial even if you want the truth to come out... or else."

I can't imagine sexual assault victims ever see things through under such a system.

Hugh Grant settles lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch rag (and explains why, even though he's confident they'd be found guilty of a load of heinous shit)

Spacenoid