Ricky Tomlinson's court battle against newspaper allowed to continue by judge

Bispham-born actor Ricky Tomlinson’s legal battle against a newspaper publisher over alleged unlawful information gathering will be allowed to continue, a High Court judge has ruled.
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Bisphan-born actor Ricky Tomlinson’s legal battle against a newspaper publisher over alleged unlawful information gathering will be allowed to continue, a High Court judge has ruled.

The Royle Family star is one of a number of people who claim they were victims of unlawful information gathering at titles run by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), who were at the centre of a bid by the publisher to have six cases struck out.

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Lawyers for MGN argued the claims have been made too late and asked Mr Justice Fancourt to either strike out the claims or give summary judgment in favour of the publisher – which would resolve the cases without a trial.

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However, in a ruling today, the judge rejected the publisher’s bid and said the cases could go ahead to trial, which is expected in May 2023.

Mr Justice Fancourt also said that as well as the unlawful information gathering claims against MGN, the six people had also brought claims over the harm caused by publishing stories about them.

However, in Friday’s ruling, the judge struck out the claims about the harm caused by the publications themselves.

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In a summary read in court, he said: “There was no concealment of what was published, and how MGN obtained the private information was not an essential fact for those causes of action.

“Accordingly, I find in favour of MGN that the publication claims of each of the claimants are statute-barred and must be struck out or dismissed.”