Mirror publisher apologises to actress Nikki Sanderson in hacking case

Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) has issued a court apology to former Coronation Street star Nikki Sanderson for using private investigators to gather stories about her. The apology was made during Sanderson’s ongoing High Court case against the publisher, where she is seeking damages for 37 articles published in the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, and People newspapers between 1999 and 2009.

In her witness statement, Sanderson claimed she was “abused” by MGN and “attacked” by individuals with more power than her. She joined Coronation Street in 1999, at the age of 15, playing the role of Candice Stowe, which quickly drew media attention. Sanderson alleges the newspapers hacked her mobile phone voicemails and paid private investigators to obtain personal information about her.

Andrew Green KC, representing the newspapers, said that while there were records of calls from journalists to Sanderson’s phone numbers, there was no evidence of phone hacking. However, he admitted that on four occasions in 2004 and 2005, journalists used private investigators from firms ELI and Avalon, which have been implicated in unlawful information gathering, to target Sanderson.

The case is also set to hear from other claimants, including Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse. They all allege that unlawful methods were used to obtain information for stories and that senior executives must have been aware of these activities and failed to stop them, which MGN denies.

In her witness statement, Sanderson described her experiences as “abuse” and recounted incidents of “mental and physical abuse” as a result of public backlash from articles published in the Mirror. She said she came to believe that “random people” or others at Coronation Street were selling stories about her and expressed her hurt over an article accusing her father of being a “womaniser.”