Sheffield Game of Thrones star Sean Bean wins 'substantial' News of the World phone hacking settlement

The Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings star was one of 15 celebrities to agree a settlement this week with the now-defunct paper’s publisher, News Group Newspapers (NGN).

In a statement read on behalf of Sean Bean, who has appeared in a number of films and television series including Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones, his solicitor Elizabeth McClenan said he issued proceedings in May 2020 after receiving information from the Metropolitan Police.

She said he identified a number of articles containing his “private and confidential information” published between 1996 and 2011, as a result of which he “became suspicious” as to who was the source.

She told the court: “The claimant has accepted the defendant’s offer to resolve this claim on terms confidential between the parties, but which involve the defendant agreeing to pay substantial damages to the claimant as well as his reasonable legal costs of bringing the claim.”

NGN agreed to pay confidential damages to each of the claimants and also pay their legal costs.

The publisher, through its legal team, made public apologies for the actions of the News Of The World, but did not admit any liability in relation to allegations of phone hacking at The Sun.

Since the phone-hacking scandal led to the closure of the News Of The World in 2011, NGN has settled a number of damages claims concerning unlawful information-gathering – but the publisher has never admitted liability in relation to alleged phone hacking at The Sun.