After months of legal wrangling, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has decided to pay out damages to 37 victims of the phone hacking, including celebrities like Jude Law. As the New York Times reports, News International, the parent company of Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, has refused to admit senior staff knew of the wrongdoing and tried to cover it up but says that "for the purpose of reaching these settlements only, News Group Newspapers agreed that the damages to be paid to claimants should be assessed as if this was the case."
The Independent reports that News International lawyers have admitted that criminal practices inside the News of the World went far further than phone hacking with revelations the company also illegally accessed computer emails.
News International has paid out about $62,000 to former British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, and about $200,000 to Jude Law, who says his phone was hacked while he was in the United States. All up, the payout totals about $1 million.
That's nothing compared to the $3.2 million Murdoch paid the family of murdered schoolgirl Millie Dowler.
And it certainly won't affect News Corporation's bottom line with the company set to make billions from the new syndication deal with the Simpsons.
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