Damages for Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley over tabloid snaps
Hugh Grant, Liz Hurley and Arun Nayar awarded £58,000 damages
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Thursday, 15, May 2008 06:29
Hugh Grant, Liz Hurley and her husband Arun Nayar have been awarded £58,000 in damages after photographs of them were published in Sunday newspapers.
The covert pictures had been taken as the group were holidaying at a private resort in the Maldives and were published in the News of the World and Mail on Sunday.
The three - who were not present at the high court hearing in London - will receive an equal share of the damages paid by Big Pictures (UK) Ltd and Eliot Press SARL after they launched a class action against the agencies, with Associated Newspapers and News Group Newspapers contributing to the damages.
Laura Tyler, representing Grant, his former girlfriend Hurley and Nayar, said the trio had chosen the resort due to its privacy and were dismayed at the publication of the pictures.
"It has been most upsetting for the claimants to have their privacy invaded by these defendants," she told Mr Justice Eady.
"The defendants have accepted that the photographs should not have been taken and that their actions invaded the claimants' privacy."
The photographs were published in the News of the World under the headline 'Liz does the blokey-cokey' while the Mail on Sunday used the banner 'Hugh's that gooseberry?' to accompany the story.
Matthew Nicklin, counsel for the photographic agencies implicated in the case, said: "Through me the defendants offer their apologies to the claimants for any distress which they may have caused."