Singer Charlotte Church Receives $951,000 in Murdoch Phone Hacking Settlement

Image: Liverpool Daily Post

Welsh singer Charlotte Church has come out victorious in a settlement from News International. She will receive $951,000 after being hounded by journalists working for Rupert Murdoch when she was a teenager and up-and-coming singer.

Church, 26, was at London’s High Court when her claim was read. After court was finished, she added, “What I have discovered as the litigation has gone on has sickened and disgusted me. Nothing was deemed off limits by those who pursued me and my family, just to make money for a multinational news corporation.”

Church’s $951,000 settlement includes $476,000 in legal costs. She was also given a public apology from News International, which Church reportedly did not find sincere.

“I have also discovered that despite the apology which the newspaper has just given in court, these people were prepared to go to any lengths to prevent me exposing their behavior,” she said. “They are not truly sorry. They are just sorry they got caught.”

News International is a division of Murdoch’s News Corp., and it has launched a compensation program in an effort to keep the phone hacking cases out of trial. It has already paid out millions in settlements for approximately 60 cases so far. Other celebrities affected include Jude Law, Steve Coogan and Sienna Miller.

Church said that money she will receive in the settlement “could never mend” the damage done to her and her family, however, she plans to put her payout towards protecting herself and her children from further invasions of privacy.

Source: The Star

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