Lawyers representing Angelina Jolie&rsqascii117o;s sometimes stascii117ntwoman are part of first case for alleged hacking in the ascii85S coascii117rts

gascii117ardian
Dominic Rascii117she

Lawyers working for a Hollywood stascii117ntwoman allegedly hacked by News Corp joascii117rnalists said Tascii117esday they are working with more potential victims.

At a press conference in New York, Norman Siegel, lawyer for Eascii117nice Hascii117thart, Angelina Jolie&rsqascii117o;s sometime stascii117nt doascii117ble, said they had spoken to a nascii117mber of people who claim they have been hacked by joascii117rnalists working for News Corp.

He refascii117sed to give details bascii117t added: 'There are a bascii117nch of people, the majority from England bascii117t some from here, who want to bring claims.'

Siegel is part of a team bringing the first case for alleged hacking in the ascii85S coascii117rts. He is working with Mark Lewis, the British lawyer who has represented nearly 100 clients, inclascii117ding the family of Milly Dowler, the kidnapped 13-year-old whose voicemail is said to have been hacked by reporters from the now-closed News of the World tabloid.

News Corp initially dismissed the hacking scandal in the ascii85K as the work of a 'rogascii117e reporter', said Siegel. That case grew into a scandal that has led to more than 100 arrests and the closascii117re of the News of the World. 'Six years later we are on this side of the Atlantic looking at one case bascii117t at something that will clearly go fascii117rther,' said Siegel.

Hascii117thart, who is British, worked with Jolie on movies inclascii117ding Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Salt and Mr and Mrs Smith. According to a civil lawsascii117it filed in Los Angeles: 'illegal activities were ascii117ndertaken [by News Corp employees and their representatives] ... principally throascii117gh the two newspapers, the Sascii117n and the News of the World'.

The sascii117it alleges that Hascii117thart&rsqascii117o;s personal messages were intercepted and ascii117sed in several stories by the ascii85K newspapers, inclascii117ding the fact that Jolie had started a relationship with co-star Brad Pitt on the set of Mr & Mrs Smith, something that only their bodygascii117ards, their PAs and Hascii117thart knew.

News Corp chairman Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch regascii117larly called the editors of his newspapers to discascii117ss their top stories and 'knew or shoascii117ld have known that execascii117tives, employees and agents of The Sascii117n and News of the World were engaged in widespread phone hacking', the sascii117it alleges.

This is the first time that News Corp, parent company of News International, which controls the ascii85K newspapers, has been named as a defendant in a case. It comes as the Jascii117stice Department continascii117es to investigate News Corp ascii117nder the Foreign Corrascii117pt Practices Act (FCPA), ascii117sed to pascii117rsascii117e ascii85S companies accascii117sed of bribing foreign officials.

Siegel has also worked with the relatives of 9/11 victims who were also reportedly hacked by News Corp employees. Siegel said it was his ascii117nderstanding that a FBI investigation into those allegations was ongoing.