"I was truly appalled by what I was shown by the police and by what my lawyers have discovered," Jude Law said today in a statement issued through his lawyer. "No aspect of my private life was safe... It was not just that my phone messages were listened to. News Group also paid people to watch me and my house for days at a time and to follow me and those close to me both in this country and abroad."
The actor's words came after a long-awaited settlement with News Group, which will be paying him £130,000 in damages as well as covering court costs. He was one of 36 people to receive pay-offs. Yet Law says it's not the money that matters to him but the apology. He tells of a feeling that he needed to stand up for himself and challenge newspaper behaviour that has also affected many ordinary people, "often at the most vulnerable times of their lives."
Law spoke of the suspicion that ate away at his relationships with colleagues, friends and family. The articles about his private life that appeared in newspapers led him to change his phone number several times and even have his home swept for bugs. He has stressed throughout the case that he just wanted to know the truth.
Tonight News Group again denied that any of their senior executives knew phone hacking was taking place.
