Stuntwoman sues News Corp over hacking

A stunt double for Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie has sued Rupert Murdoch’s beleaguered media empire News Corp over allegations its British newspapers hacked her phone, the first lawsuit in the US against the company since a hacking scandal broke out two years ago.

The lawsuit filed on June 13 by professional stunt double, Eunice Huthart, said reporters from News Corp’s tabloids The Sun and the defunct News of the World, hacked her mobile phone while she was working for Jolie on location in Los Angeles.

A spokesman for News Corp declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Huthart’s lawsuit said the hacking occurred in 2004 and 2005 while she was in the United States and Britain and resulted in lost voice messages that she never received.

The missing voice mails provided information later used in news reports, according to the court document in US District Court in California.

Huthart is seeking unspecified damages.

Huthart’s mobile phone number, account number and personal code appeared in the notes of Glenn Mulcaire, who was imprisoned in Britain for six months in 2007 for illegally intercepting phone messages at the request of News of the World.

The weekly paper was shut down in July 2011 after it emerged it had illegally accessed the mobile phone voice messages of hundreds of high-profile figures, including missing teenager Milly Dowler who was later found murdered.