David Walliams accepts damages over phone hacking

Actor/comedian David Walliams has accepted a “substantial” payout from bosses at a U.K. newspaper company in connection to the British phone hacking scandal. The funnyman was among hundreds of celebrities and public figures who suffered a breach of privacy when a private investigator working for U.K. tabloid News of the World intercepted their voicemail messages.
At London’s High Court on Thursday (18Oct14), bosses at News Group Newspapers, the tabloid’s parent company, admitted liability for misuse of private information and agreed to pay “substantial undisclosed” damages and legal costs.
The phone hacking caused the Little Britain star to suspect friends and family had been leaking stories about him to the newspaper, not realising the information had been obtained by listening to his voicemails.
Walliams’ lawyer Jenny Afia says, “The process understandably caused him to distrust people, including friends and girlfriends, creating a sense of paranoia and worry… The fact that the claimant did not know how the defendant was obtaining information about him contributed to his anxiety.”
The News of the World was shut down in 2011 in the wake of the scandal and a lengthy police investigation was launched.
Actors Jude Law and Rhys Ifans, funnyman Steve Coogan, and rocker Pete Doherty have all reached settlements in connection to the inquiry.