Big payout for MP whose stolen mobile was accessed by the Sun

Siobhain McDonagh, member for Mitcham and Morden, in south west London, accepted “very substantial” damages and a public apology from the Sun at the High Court in London yesterday
over the “serious misuse of her private information”.

Speaking after the hearing, Ms McDonagh said: “I was a government whip, I had lots of phone numbers and had then exposed all those people to having their privacy invaded, and that troubled me.”

Giving the details of Ms McDonagh’s case in court, her lawyer told Mr Justice Vos that her private mobile telephone was stolen from her car in Colliers Wood in south west London on October 17 2010.

David Sherborne said that in June last year police notified her that they had “obtained evidence that the Sun had accessed her text messages”.

Dinah Rose QC, for the defendants, told the judge: “Through me they offer their unreserved apology to the claimant for what has happened.”

The hearing was the 14th case management conference relating to civil damages actions brought by scores of people over the phone-hacking scandal.

At the beginning of proceedings, Hugh Tomlinson QC, representing claimants in the action, told the court that further arrests had been made “in what the Metropolitan Police Service have characterised in their public statement as a new conspiracy to intercept voice mail messages”.

He added that it involved “potentially hundreds of victims”.