Another nine claimants have settled their actions in the phone-hacking damages litigation involving the News of the World, the High Court in London heard today.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, who represents some of the claimants, said nine out of 10 outstanding claims had been settled with News of the World publisher News Group Newspapers.
The announcement came during the latest in a number of pre-trial reviews in the case in preparation for a long-awaited trial due to start next week.
Today’s news, at a hearing in London before Mr Justice Vos, follows last month’s settlement of 37 claims against News International subsidiary NGN.
Mr Tomlinson told the court that singer Charlotte Church had not reached an agreement with NGN.
The court heard 15 new settlements had been reached, including nine of the 10 which were due to be heard in next week’s trial.
These ten claimants were thought to include Ms Church and her parents, comedian Steve Coogan, singer Pete Doherty, football agent Sky Andrew, MP Simon Hughes, Tracey Temple, who had a relationship with Lord Prescott, jockey Kieren Fallon and racing trainer Samantha Wallin.
Tony Blair’s former adviser Alastair Campbell, ex-footballer Paul Gascoigne and his friend Jimmy Gardner, and Phil Hughes, the late George Best’s friend and former agent, are also understood to be in the process of settling.
The court heard Mr Coogan had settled his claim for £40,000.
Outside court, Mr Coogan said he was pleased that, after "two years of argument and denials", News International - of which News Group is a subsidiary - had "finally agreed to settle".
"It has been a very stressful and time-consuming experience for me and for those close to me," Mr Coogan told journalists.
"This has never been about money. Like other people who have sued, I was determined to do my part to show the depths to which the press can sink in pursuit of private information."
He added: "...at the time when these civil cases began, News International seemed likely to succeed in covering up the hacking scandal completely. Neither the police nor the Government were willing to hold those responsible
accountable.
"For a long time it was left to victims of these egregious practices to fight for the truth.
"The victims included not only people like me, who are well- known and in the public eye, but also many ordinary members of the public, sometimes vulnerable people with the most tenuous connection to the news. I am full of admiration for their bravery and persistence."
He said the inquiry into press standards was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get to the truth and ensure "this kind of abuse" was not "inflicted on others".
"The public needs to be on its guard to ensure that the Press does not escape the consequences of its misdeeds, as it has done many times before," he said.
"It would be very wrong if it were ever again left to private citizens to take on the might of the newspaper industry to address wrongs on such a scale."
Meanwhile, it emerged at the Leveson Inquiry that three of Britain's largest mobile phone companies took at least five years to tell customers their voicemails had been hacked.
Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile established that 156 people on their networks were hacking victims after News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman was arrested in August 2006.
But fears about prejudicing the police investigation meant that Orange and T-Mobile did not notify those affected until last July - and Vodafone told victims only last month.
By contrast, O2 said it discovered that about 40 of its customers could have had their voicemails illegally intercepted and contacted them five years ago, at the time of the original Scotland Yard inquiry.
The press standards inquiry heard that investigations established there were 40 hacking victims on the Vodafone network, 45 on Orange and 71 on T-Mobile.
Goodman was jailed along with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in January 2007 after they admitted intercepting voicemail messages left on royal aides’ phones.
The mobile networks launched a major review of voicemail security after Goodman’s arrest, the inquiry heard.
Mark Hughes, Vodafone’s head of security, said detectives provided his company with two landline numbers belonging to News International which were used for hacking.
The phone company identified 177 different voicemail numbers that had been accessed. By comparing these with police records, they established that 40 people had been victims of hacking.
Explaining why Vodafone did not notify those affected until this year, Mr Hughes said: “We were expressly told at the time of the investigation not to contact our customers as we may prejudice the police investigation.”
He added: “With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been much better to have a level of clarity with the police much earlier so that we could tell our customers what the issue was.”
James Blendis, vice-president for legal and regulatory affairs for Everything Everywhere, the company formed by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile in 2010, said informing all hacking victims earlier could have alerted journalists carrying out the illegal activity.
He said: “What we need to get to is circumstances where we have clarity where we are not prejudicing the investigation, where we are not, for example, tipping off the hackers themselves.
"Some of the numbers, actually, are the journalists at the News of the World, so it is likely that there was some trial and error of the process.
“I think it is highly likely that if we had simply contacted everyone that we had as a potential victim, we may well have tipped off those people.”
PA