Phone-hacking victims file lawsuits against Daily Mirror
Four claims filed in High Court over newspaper formerly edited by TV presenter Piers Morgan
Four alleged phone-hacking victims have filed lawsuits against the publisher of Britain's newspaper, a tabloid once edited by CNN presenter Piers Morgan, a prominent lawyer said.
The lawsuits are believed to be the first to hit a publication outside Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire and could mark the further expansion of a scandal which has already tarnished a big chunk of Britain's establishment.
Mark Lewis said on Monday that the new suits had been filed against the Trinity Mirror Group at Britain's High Court.
He confirmed the claimants' identities as ex-England soccer coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, soccer star David Beckham's family nanny Abbie Gibson, former Blackburn Rovers soccer team captain Garry Flitcroft and UK actress Shobna Gulati.
Word that the Mirror now stands accused of eavesdropping on private voicemails may surprise few in Britain's scandal-scarred media.
Insiders have been warning since last year that the row over phone-hacking which first erupted at Murdoch's now-defunct tabloid would end up spreading to the paper's competitors.
