I Don't Plan to Let This Lie' _ Media _ Guardian.co.Uk

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Interview

Charlotte Church on phone hacking: 'Idon't plan to let this lie'Singer tells Guardian she settled phone-hacking claim to stop

further stories about her family being dragged up in court

Lisa O'Carroll

guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 February 2012 16.04 GMT

Article history

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Charlotte Church outside the high court today after settling her legal action against News International. Photograph:

Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

Charlotte Church is in fighting form. She has just settled her acrimonious case with

News International over her News of the World phone-hacking claim and plans to use

her portion of the damages payment to fight privacy actions against other newspapers.

The Welsh singer, actor and TV presenter says she was treated unfairly by Rupert

Murdoch's British publishing arm, yet was forced to settle her case because his company

had threatened to invade her privacy all over again by dragging up "ancient" stories

about an affair her stepfather, James, had and a suicide attempt by her mother, Maria.

Church is sharing the 300,000 in damages with James and Maria, with the rest of the

settlement consisting of legal costs. She says she is considering using the money to

pursue a privacy action against at least one other national newspaper.

The civil action against News International was, she says, a battle of "David and Goliath"

proportions with the resources of one of the world's biggest media companies ranged

against her small team.

Church feared for the health of her mother if she was cross-examined and decided no

money was worth it. Murdoch's News Corporation, she says, has "learned nothing" from

the phone-hacking scandal, judging by its defence strategy.

"I really wanted to take it all the way as well. I am really sorry, I hope people don't feel

let down, but the thing is it's not so black and white, it's definitely not a case of money; it

became totally irrelevant," Church adds, in an interview with the Guardian conducted in

her kitchen in south Wales last week, after the case had been settled but beforeMonday's high court statement revealing details of the payout.

She says she felt as if she was left "trying to fight with two hands and a leg tied behind

[my] back and you can just kick with one leg".

rlotte Church on phone hacking: 'I don't plan to let this lie' | Media | ... http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/27/charlotte-church-phone-...

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"You just have to look at the court room, look at News International and their 25

lawyers and then look at the individuals with maybe their three lawyers and one

barrister and a couple of juniors," Church adds. "You are fighting a massive corporation

with endless resources, a phenomenal amount of power and it is just made really

difficult."

Church says she was shocked when police first told her that her phone had been hacked

by the News of the World between 2002 and 2006. "We did think at the time, they are

bugging us. You think, 'Christ they must have microphones in the house' but then it

seemed so preposterous that you don't take it to the police, it seemed so sci-fi, so James

Bond," she says.

She describes how her family "were targeted and watched" by the paper for years and

how undercover reporters and photographers "immersed themselves" in her life,

turning up at coffee shops, on holidays, and breaking into the grounds of her house.

"For four years, four or five photographers, always journalists, always people following

me, constantly trying to infiltrate my group," Church recalls. "If I'm going somewhere

for a cup of coffee, I don't even know who these people are but they are on the next

table, they are there listening. They totally immersed themselves in my life."

Church, 26, recalls the gilded life she had when she became a child star at the age of 11,

travelling around the world "meeting popes and presidents", but how it suddenly

changed when she turned 14 and how media coverage started to become increasingly

negative after she fell out with a former manager.

The press started to depict her mother, Maria who took over looking after her

business affairs as a power-hungry, greedy "Welsh dragon" who was managing the

child star for her money, when all she was doing was trying to protect her child from the

media, says Church. "She was absolutely phenomenal. She somehow made sure that I'm

sane."

Although she doesn't want to "dwell on it" for obvious reasons, News International's

defence strategy hinged on the mental state of her mother and the cause of an

attempted suicide seven years ago. According to Church, at a pre-trial hearing MichaelSilverleaf QC, counsel for the publisher, noted there would be "significant debate" over

whether the News of the World was "responsible" for the distress caused to her mother

and said a fresh medical examination would be required.

Church told the Leveson inquiry last year how her mother tried to kill herself shortly

before the News of the World published a story about her father having an affair and

taking cocaine. Church recalls the events with clarity. Her mother and father were

already reconciled after the affair; her mother was in "absolute bits" about what had

happened but the News of the World "blackmailed" her into giving a first hand account

of her trauma in exchange for not publishing "part two" of the story on her husband, she

says.

"[They said] 'If you give us a story, an exclusive about your self-harming, your

attempted suicide, your relationship with Charlotte, then we won't print that story and

that story will never see the light of day'," Church adds. Her mother, at her wits' end,

agreed. Church recalls angrily how the journalists asked her mother if they could take

pictures of her arms and how her mother erupted and said "are you taking the piss?".

"In the pre-trial hearing, Silverleaf made it reasonably plain the way they were going to

be playing it. They were subjecting my mother to a psychological analysis, which is

ridiculous. How are you going to get a psychologist for an hour to judge what happened

seven years ago? It was just a totally pointless exercise," she says.

"They were just going to drag my parents through the mud again and I couldn't let that

happen. I've seen what it's done to my family the first time round and they were going

to do it all over again which just says to me they haven't learned anything."

This meant the case "wasn't going to be about the criminal activity", according to

Church. "They were going to put such an aggressive defence up to weaken us." And this


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2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

is why she settled.

Her manager, John Vernile, says the defence strategy didn't address any of the key

points of the claims by Church and her family, which centred on phone hacking and

surveillance.

In a pre-trial hearing in early February, Church's barrister, David Sherborne, told the

high court that 33 News of the World articles between 2002 and 2006 were the "result

of the ill-gotten gains of phone hacking".

But Church's case went further than just hacking and invasion of privacy she wanted

punitive, or exemplary damages for the distress caused to her mother and her

stepfather and it was this that became a "horrendous" battleground.

News International was not going to call any witnesses in defence of phone hacking, so

it meant only her side would be cross-examined.

"What it becomes about then, is me and my parents being cross examined on the stand

by a phenomenal barrister and it becomes about that and just becomes less about their

criminality, and the fact they played it that way, to me, says they learned nothing," says

Church.

Despite having settled and the anguish the process caused her family, she says she has

some sense of victory because they have forced the police and News International to

disclose as much data as possible about their case which can now be fed into any

potential criminal actions against former News of the World journalists.

"This is one of the hardest things I've ever been through, it's been so stressful," she says,

adding: "I don't plan to let this lie at all."

Had the Churchs lost and under civil litigation law there was a strong possibility of

this they would have been left with a bill of between 1.5m and 2m to cover the costs

of News International, according to her manager Vernile.

It was, he adds, an enormous gamble to go to full trial. "You're having to play this

russian roulette," he says.

Church doesn't know how far up the chain at News International knowledge of phone

hacking went, but she has strong views about former News of the World editors Andy

Coulson and Rebekah Brooks, who went on to become News International chief

executive.

"I don't know what their involvement was, but looking at their positions as editor of the

News of the World, the other being the head of the umbrella company, I think they

behaved very irresponsibly and I think they put a lot of people at risk."

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I Don't Plan to Let This Lie' _ Media _ Guardian.co.Uk