Sympathy for News Group Newspapers and its News of the World employees is in short supply as the Metropolitan Police (finally), Mr Justice Vos, the Guardian, Keith Vaz, Tom Watson and countless claimants circle to bring this Fleet Street beast to its knees. Lord knows, even the Press Complaints Commission may decide they need a ticking-off.
But now that News Group have made the painful shift from belligerent resistance to apologies and offers, what can the victims now expect in compensation for having been subjected to this dark art and its spoils? It should be acknowledged that whilst reports of News Group’s compensation fund give some grounds for encouragement, this fund exists in the continued ignorance of how many complainants are to share in it. Charlotte Harris, who knows more about this than most, has recently suggested as many as 7,000 victims. Cue watering eyes at Wapping. Their failure to properly investigate may have suited them in 2006, but in 2011 it means that it is only the Metropolitan Police who have a record of the extent of what was being commissioned of their busy private investigator.
