A statement by lawyers representing hacking victims said that Mr. Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, which published the now-defunct News of the World tabloid, had agreed to pay substantial damages on the basis “that senior employees and directors” of the company “knew about the wrongdoing and sought to conceal it by deliberately deceiving investigators and destroying evidence.”
While not explicitly admitting or denying those claims, the company agreed to set compensation on the basis that it was true. In doing so, it acknowledged, lawyers said, that it had deliberately covered up both the existence and the pervasiveness of The News of the World’s phone-hacking operation, lied about it to the police and Parliament, and destroyed evidence in the case.
Details about some of the settlements were disclosed at a High Court hearing on Thursday, in which victims’ statements were read aloud and a lawyer for News International, a British subsidiary of News Corp., repeatedly apologized on behalf of the company.
Victims whose settlement details were disclosed include Mr. Law, who received £130,000 (about $200,000) in damages; Sadie Frost, his ex-wife, who received £50,000 ($77,000) ; Ben Jackson, his assistant, who received £40,000 ($61,000); Denis MacShane, a member of Parliament, who received £32,500 ($50,000); and Gavin Henson, a Welsh rugby star, who received £40,000 ($61,000). In each case, the settlement includes legal costs, which can easily run into six-figure sums for a single complainant.
The settlements disclosed on Thursday represent only a small number of the cases brought by people who say their phones were hacked against News International.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer for many of the phone-hacking victims, said in an e-mail that the claimants’ fight against the Murdoch media properties was not over.
“It is important that we don’t get carried away into thinking that the war is over,” Mr. Lewis said, according to The Associated Press. “ There are many more cases in the pipeline.”
He added: “This is too early to celebrate, we’re not even at the end of the beginning.”
The scandal, which exploded last year into a full-blown crisis for Mr. Murdoch’s holdings in Britain, has led to a series of police and judicial inquiries into the behavior of journalists, police officers and politicians.
At the same time, disclosures about hacking by a private investigator employed by The News of the World — a 168-year-old Sunday tabloid that Mr. Murdoch ordered closed last year as the scandal spread — forced a series of high-level resignations, including that of Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who later became media adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron. He resigned a year ago amid continued questions about his possible involvement in the illegal hacking.
At least 20 people have been arrested by the police.
News reports on Thursday did not immediately specify the total amount involved in the settlements. But only a fraction of potential victims have settled with the company, and its final legal bill could be well into the tens of millions of pounds, lawyers say.
All of the cases dealt with voice-mail interception except one, which related to alleged hacking of the personal e-mail account of Christopher Shipman, the son of the convicted mass murderer Harold Shipman.
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