Mirror admits using private investigators in Nikki Sanderson stories, court told

The publisher of the Mirror newspapers has made a court apology to the former Coronation Street actor Nikki Sanderson after admitting using private investigators to get stories about her.

A barrister for Mirror Group Newspapers said it "unequivocally apologises" to her, adding "it shouldn't have happened and won't again".

Ms Sanderson was giving evidence in her High Court case against the newspapers.

Despite the admissions, MGN denies targeting her more widely.

She is claiming damages for 37 articles published in the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People newspapers between 1999 and 2009.

Andrew Green KC, for the newspapers, said she had lived through "much press intrusion" and giving evidence would be "unpleasant and stressful."

In her witness statement, Ms Sanderson said she had been "abused" by MGN and "attacked" by people with more power than her.

Ms Sanderson joined Coronation Street in 1999, aged 15, playing the role of Candice Stowe and immediately became of interest to the media, the court heard.

Crowds would regularly gather outside the studios and photographers would appear to get pictures of her.

Ms Sanderson alleges the newspapers used information from her mobile phone voicemails which were hacked, and paid private investigators to get personal information about her.

Mr Green said a small number of records for calls from journalists to her phone numbers had been disclosed, but showed no evidence they were to hack her phone.

However, within invoices for payments to private investigators, Mr Green said four were for the firms ELI and Avalon, which have been implicated in unlawful information gathering

Making the apology, he said MGN admitted on four occasions in 2004 and 2005 journalists used the investigators to target Ms Sanderson.

Mr Green is continuing to cross-examine Ms Sanderson about the stories she has put at the centre of her case.

Prince Harry has said he is suing the publisher of the Daily Mirror to stop "absolute intrusion and hate" towards him and his wife.

The case is also due to hear from other claimants including Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse.

They all allege unlawful methods were used to obtain information for stories and say senior executives must have known about it and failed to stop it, which MGN denies.

MGN, which has admitted widespread unlawful information gathering against other celebrities, has argued Ms Sanderson should have brought her legal action years ago, under rules that civil claims must be made within six years.

She called this "gaslighting" in her witness statement.

Describing herself as a "young girl" at the time, Ms Sanderson accused the publisher of "hiring random men" to follow her.

"They could have done anything to me," she said, adding that it was "particularly distressing to learn that these illegal activities continued for a period of many years".

Describing her experiences as "abuse", she said she did not use the word "lightly".

"The fact is these people were in positions of power and I was a child and a young female, and I was attacked by people who were more powerful than me - I did nothing to deserve this treatment."

Ms Sanderson also said she was tricked into giving away the name of a hotel she was staying at in Zakynthos, Greece.

She said someone working for "Disney or Universal" contacted her mother saying they were interested in making her part of a film and needed to send a telegram.

"The next thing I know, the paps [paparazzi] and press had managed to find me, she said, adding she "was little more than a child and they deceived me".

Ms Sanderson also said she was subjected to "mental and physical abuse" as a result of public backlash from articles written in the Mirror.

As well as being shouted at in the street, she said on one occasion a group of girls set fire to her hair in the toilets of a club.

"Fortunately, I wasn't wearing any hair product, otherwise, my hair would have gone up in flames," she said.

Ms Sanderson said she came to think that "random people" or others at Coronation Street were selling stories about her.

She also said she was "really hurt" by one article which accused her father of being a "womaniser".

"To have my personal life splashed over the papers for people to indulge in was heart-breaking."