Piers Morgan feels the heat as four accuse the Mirror of phone hacking

CLAIMS of alleged phone hacking have been lodged against Trinity Mirror by former England football manager Sven-Goran Eriksson and three others.

• Four people are launching legal action against the Daily Mirror over phone hacking allegations

• It is understood to be the first legal action brought against a newspaper not owned by News International

The publisher of the Daily Mirror and the People saw its shares fall nearly 10 per cent yesterday after it emerged that Eriksson has filed a complaint alleging hacking at the Mirror at a time when Piers Morgan was editor.

Morgan has repeatedly denied any involvement in the practice.

The three other claimants are Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati, Abbie Gibson – a former nanny for the Beckham family – and Garry Flitcroft, the former captain of Blackburn Rovers, and they involve the Sunday Mirror and the People.

Media lawyer Mark Lewis is dealing with phone-hacking claims for the four high-profile individuals in the first action to be launched against newspapers outside of Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

Trinity Mirror, which also publishes the Daily Record and the Sunday Mail, saw around £17 million wiped from its market value after the allegations emerged.

The company said it had “not yet received any claims, nor have we been provided with any substantiation for those claims”.

It added: “As we have previously stated, all our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct.”

The claims allege “breach of confidence and misuse of private information” relating to the “interception and/or misuse of mobile phone voicemail messages and/or the interception of telephone

accounts”.

No further details have been filed.

The claims come weeks before Lord Justice Leveson is due to unveil his proposals for the UK press amid speculation that he is set to recommend statutory regulation.

The allegations come at a challenging time for Trinity Mirror, which is in the midst of a cost-cutting drive and recently unveiled a management reshuffle that will see its national and regional divisions fall under one structure.

In a recent update, new chief executive Simon Fox said revenues fell 4 per cent in the 26 weeks to 1 July as its regional papers were hit by the economic malaise in northern cities. Advertising slumped 10 per cent. There were signs the group had turned a corner as national advertising sales performed strongly and profits increased when the cost-cutting measures kicked in.

Johnathan Barrett, an analyst at N+1 Singer, said: “The shares have been very strong and buoyed by an improved nationals advertising market and the likelihood of greater cost savings in 2013.

“The claims will weigh on the shares, in part because many had assumed the subject was fading away as an issue.”

Brian Cathcart, the director of campaign group Hacked Off, said: “These allegations, if proven, would mean that unethical and unlawful practices in the tabloid press extended well

beyond one newspaper group.

“It’s ironic that even as these new revelations emerge the industry is still arguing for another stab at the self-regulation that has failed to curb this kind of activity for decades.”

Shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said: “The news that four phone hacking cases have been lodged at the High Court against Mirror Group Newspapers raises the troubling possibility that hacking went beyond News International.

“It is important that allegations of phone hacking or other criminality in any news organisation are taken seriously.”