Phone-Hacking Victims Win Damages From Trinity Mirror Group

Eight mostly celebrity victims of phone-hacking won a total of 1.2 million pounds in damages from Britain's Trinity Mirror newspaper group on Thursday in the first civil lawsuit related to the tabloid scandal to conclude in court.

The victims were actress Sadie Frost, retired footballer Paul Gascoigne, BBC executive Alan Yentob, three actors from TV soap operas, a TV producer and a flight attendant who had dated England footballer Rio Ferdinand.

Trinity Mirror, owner of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror tabloids, said it was considering an appeal against the High Court ruling.

"We have said all along that we would pay full, fair and proper compensation to the claimants and that is not in dispute," a spokeswoman said.

"However, damages need to be proportionate to compensation awarded in previous cases of physical and mental suffering ... Our current view is that the basis used for calculating the damages is incorrect."

Trinity Mirror shares were down 1.9 percent at 11.37 a.m.

The eight claimants sought damages after reporters seeking scoops listened to their voicemail messages, leading in some cases to salacious stories and to the victims suspecting those close to them of leaking information to reporters.

Frost was awarded 260,250 pounds, Gascoigne 188,250 pounds and Yentob 85,000 pounds.

The awards were larger than those given to victims in out-of-court settlements, and Frost's was believed to be the single biggest privacy damages payout since the phone-hacking scandal broke, according to the Guardian newspaper.

Trinity Mirror said last July it had set aside 4 million pounds over the first six months of the year to cover the cost of dealing with and settling phone-hacking claims.

Thursday's High Court ruling was the first time that a civil lawsuit related to phone-hacking has been decided by a judge. Previous damages claims against both Trinity Mirror and Rupert Murdoch's News UK group (NWSA.O) were settled out of court.

The phone-hacking scandal erupted in 2011 when it was revealed that some staff at Murdoch's News of the World tabloid had routinely listened to private voicemail messages to generate scoops, prompting Murdoch to shut down the 168-year-old paper.

Police have been conducting a vast investigation into phone-hacking and other suspected illegal practices by tabloid newspapers. At first the focus was mostly on Murdoch's titles, but it later widened to the Trinity Mirror newspapers.

The group has said it was cooperating with the Metropolitan Police Service investigations.

Piers Morgan, a former editor of the Mirror who went on to become a well-known TV presenter in the United States, has been questioned by police twice in connection with their investigations. He has denied any involvement and has not been charged.

An eight-month criminal trial into hacking at the News of the World resulted in a conviction for conspiracy to intercept messages for former editor Andy Coulson, who had gone on to work as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief.

Rebekah Brooks, another former News of the World editor who had risen to be the boss of Murdoch's entire British newspaper arm, was acquitted of all charges in the same trial.