Mark Lewis, the lawyer who has represented numerous victims of phone-hacking at the News of the World, has settled his libel claim against the Met.
According to the BBC, his libel action was pursued in relation to evidence he gave on phone hacking to a parliamentary select committee.
The Met alleged that Lewis had misquoted Det Insp Mark Maberly as saying about 6,000 people were potential hacking victims, and Lewis sued ‘on the basis that the Met had implied he lied to the MPs in 2009″.
The Met will pay Lewis £30,000 damages and £200,000 in costs
The BBC reported:
In September 2009, Mr Lewis was asked to give evidence on phone hacking to the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport.
He told MPs on the committee that he had been told by Det Insp Maberly that about 6,000 people had either had their phones hacked, or had left messages that were intercepted on phones that had been hacked.
In response to a request for information from the Press Complaints Commission about the extent of suspected phone hacking, the Met said their officer had been ‘wrongly quoted’ on the 6,000 figure.
Mr Lewis argued this gave the impression that he had been dishonest.
The Met said it regretted the statement ‘may have been misinterpreted in some quarters’, and accepted that Mr Lewis gave evidence ‘to the best of his recollection’ at the select committee.
Mr Lewis told the BBC that he had accepted the financial settlement. He also withdrew his allegation of dishonesty against Det Insp Maberly.
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