Damages for Gascoigne's former wife

Ms Gascoigne had complained about a March 2009 story in the Sunday Mirror headlined "I blame Sheryl", which was billed as an exclusive in which the former Spurs and England star's mother broke her "20-year silence".

She was at London's High Court yesterday to hear her solicitor, Roderick Chisholm-Batten, tell Mr Justice Eady that she was deeply distressed by the publication of the false allegations. It was suggested that Ms Gascoigne had provoked the infamous attack on her by her then-husband at the Gleneagles Hotel in October 1996 by making abusive remarks about his mother.

Mr Chisholm-Batten said: "As Paul has himself publicly admitted, there was no excuse for what he did to her at the Gleneagles Hotel." He said the newspaper had agreed to pay Ms Gascoigne's legal costs.