Actor, comedian, victim of phone hacking by the News of the World and a leading figure in legal actions against the newspaper. He told the Leveson Inquiry that "lurid" details of his private life appeared in the News of the World after he was set up by that paper's former editor. Coogan gave extensive evidence of intrusive stalking and photographing by the Daily Mirror and Sunday Times. He said he had witnessed journalists rummaging through his rubbish bins. He had also been the victim of several kiss-and-tell stories and detailed how the women in question had been fooled and sometimes bribed into giving stories. At the heart of the problem, he thought, was the lack of accountability on the part of the editors and owners.
British lawyer and member of Doughty Street Chambers in London, practising criminal law since 1986 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 2010. Writes a blog, Nothing Like the Sun, subtitled "an occasional blog on legal and other matters that interest me", and gave evidence on the ethics of blogging.
