Paper’s parent company Trinity Mirror does not rule out further allegations and triples compensation fund to £12m

The Daily Mirror has published its first open apology to the victims of phone hacking and said it has tripled its fund to deal with the fallout from the scandal to £12m.

It should never have happened and fell far below the standards our readers expect and deserve The Mirror

The paper and its parent company, Trinity Mirror, apologised to “all its victims of phone hacking” and said voicemails on certain people’s phones were unlawfully accessed “some years ago”.

It is the first time the company has printed a public apology for hacking in one of its papers. It took up a third of page two of Friday’s edition of the Daily Mirror and will be reprinted in its sister Trinity Mirror titles, the Sunday Mirror and the Sunday People at the weekend.



Trinity Mirror, in a statement to the City, did not rule out further allegations or claims of hacking and their “possible financial impact”.



The apology said information from phone hacking was used in papers in what the company described as an “unacceptable intrusion” into private lives.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Mirror’s page 2 apology. Photograph: Guardian

The apology said: “It was unlawful and should never have happened and fell far below the standards our readers expect and deserve.



“We are taking this opportunity to give every victim a sincere apology for what happened.”



It said the practice had “long since been banished from Trinity Mirror’s business and we are committed to ensuring it will not happen again”.



The apology comes five months after the group agreed to pay compensation to 10 victims of phone hacking, including former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and one-time Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston.



At the time, Trinity Mirror was facing up to 50 civil claims for compensation – a number that is now understood to have risen significantly. In January, the publisher settled claims with a number of other celebrities, including Cilla Black, EastEnders actor Jessie Wallace and Peter Andre.

It was the first significant admission of phone hacking by a newspaper group not owned by Rupert Murdoch, and it was regarded as significant because it confirms that the practice was widespread in parts of the British newspaper industry.



Trinity Mirror said: “As the process of dealing with the civil claims has progressed, it has become evident that the cost of resolving these claims will be higher than previously envisaged.



Phone hacking: Trinity Mirror to pay out over 10 claims Read more

“Therefore, at the full year the company will increase the provision charged for dealing with and resolving civil claims … by £8m to £12m.



“Inevitably, there remains some uncertainty as to how matters will progress and whether or not new allegations or claims will emerge and their possible financial impact.”



In the interim statement published on Friday, Trinity Mirror said: “The company continues to cooperate with the Metropolitan police service in their ongoing investigations and it takes all allegations seriously.



“The company has today published an open apology to the victims of phone hacking in the Daily Mirror and plans to publish the same apology in the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People this weekend.”

