Glenn Mulcaire granted hack case appeal

Glenn Mulcaire has been given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court (PA)

Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has been given permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against orders that he cannot rely on privilege against self-incrimination in the phone-hacking proceedings.

The two-day hearing is scheduled to begin on May 9.

Earlier this month, the Court of Appeal rejected Mulcaire's challenge to rulings that he did not have the right to refuse to say who asked him to intercept voice messages.

The orders were made in response to applications made by comedian and actor Steve Coogan and PR consultant Nicola Phillips in their civil damages claims for breach of confidence against both News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Mulcaire, whom NGN had exclusively retained.

In a statement issued after that appeal failed, Mulcaire said there was no dispute that he was entitled to invoke the long-standing common law privilege against self-incrimination, subject to Section 72 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, on which the appeal hinged.

"I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has recognised that this privilege remains a part of our common law.

"It has also emphasised that it cannot be removed in civil proceedings without safeguards for the person at risk of prosecution.

"Though it considered that the Act removed my privilege in these two cases, the Court of Appeal considered the arguments put forward on my behalf in great detail in its judgment.

"It acknowledged that those arguments 'appear to be of some general significance'.

"I intend to appeal this ruling to the Supreme Court, because this may affect my right to claim the privilege in other civil cases still being brought against me."

PA