Trinity Mirror Agrees To 10 Hacking Payouts

Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI.L - news) is to pay compensation to ten celebrities over alleged phone hacking - acknowledging its involvement in the practice for the first time.

The publisher of titles including the Daily Mirror and Sunday People admitted liability to four people but did not identify them.

The individuals are Eastenders star Shane Richie, who plays Alfie Moon, and Lucy Benjamin who left the soap in 2010 as well as fellow actor Shobna Gulati and the BBC's creative director Alan Yentob.

Those who have already received undisclosed payments are former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson, actor Christopher Eccleston and David and Victoria Beckham's former nanny, Abbie Gibson.

It has also agreed to pay ex-footballer Garry Flitcroft, celebrity agent Phil Dale, and Christie Roche, Shane Ritchie's wife.

The Trinity Mirror statement said: "The company today confirms that its subsidiary MGN Ltd has admitted liability to four individuals who had sued MGN for alleged interception of their voicemails many years ago.

"MGN has apologised to those individuals and agreed to pay compensation. The amount of that compensation will be assessed by the court if it cannot be agreed.

"The company can also confirm that six other voicemail interception claims have already been settled for agreed sums".

Trinity Mirror said in July that it had set aside £4m to deal with civil claims over phone-hacking allegations.

In the same month, reporter Dan Evans was given a suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring to hack phones.

One charge related to his time at the Sunday Mirror between 2003 and 2005, the other to his subsequent employment from 2004 to 2010 at the now-closed News of the World.