Sued by Hugh Grant, the tabloid The Sun will be tried for illegal information gathering

British justice on Friday ordered a trial for the tabloid publisher The Sunsued by comedian Hugh Grant for gathering illegal information.

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The trial is due to be held in January.

The 62-year-old British actor notably accuses the Sun, whose publisher NGN denies any illegal process, of having used private detectives.

Judge Timothy Fancourt ruled that the lawsuits brought by Hugh Grant should be dealt with at trial, except for a part of them, relating to telephone hacking. The magistrate considered that the actor should have initiated the proceedings earlier in this regard.

A similar procedure was initiated by Prince Harry. A decision on the holding of a trial will be known in the coming months.

In his conclusions, Hugh Grant accuses the Sun of “illegal acts” among which “sponsored burglaries, invasion of private property to obtain information by placing microphones, listening to landline telephones”, as well as “telephone hacking and recourse to private investigators to accomplish the whole thing”.

A spokesperson for NGN said the phone hacking charges were dismissed, saying the group “strongly denies the charges of illegal information gathering contained in what remains of Mr. grant”.

Welcoming the judge’s decision, Hugh Grant deemed it “necessary for the truth to come out” about the activities of the Sun, stressing that this case “goes much further than voicemail interceptions”.

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