Phone Hacking: Miller To Accept Payout - Sky News

4:02pm UK, Friday May 13, 2011

Actress Sienna Miller has agreed to accept damages of £100,000 in her News of the World phone hacking case.

Sienna Miller's settlement is likely to be formalised by the court next week

News Group, which publishes the paper, admitted on Thursday it accepted unconditional liability for all the wrongs alleged by Miller and that it took responsibility for compensating her.

Her lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson QC, said Miller would take the money because News Group had accepted her allegations.

He said these included "misuse of private information, breach of confidence, publication of articles derived from voice-mail hacking and a course of conduct of harassment over a period of more than 12 months".

Her primary concern is to know exactly what the extent was of the hacking which took place.

Hugh Tomlinson QC, representing Sienna Miller

The paper's lawyer claimed the settlement was "substantially in excess" of the amount the actress could have won through the courts.

Mr Tomlinson insisted she had not become "greedy" but she wanted to know the precise extent of the wrongdoing and be properly compensated for it.

The deal will also allow Miller to apply to the courts if more relevant wrongdoing against her is disclosed.

The settlement will now be formalised in court, which is expected by next Friday.

Miller's claim had been expected to be one of four test cases to be tried at the end of this year.

Interior designer Kelly Hoppen is also expected to bring a test case

Others are being bought by interior designer Kelly Hoppen, commentator Andy Gray and sports agent Sky Andrew.

There have been several court rulings recently over disclosure of information by the Metropolitan Police and Vodafone relating to material forfeited by private detective Glenn Mulcaire.

In 2007, he was jailed with News of the World reporter Clive Goodman over royal phone tapping.

Eight claimants, including Miller and former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, have received apologies from the newspaper.

News International has written to another nine people asking for further evidence that their voicemails had been intercepted so a decision can be made on whether they are entitled to an apology and compensation.