The family of deceased reality TV star, Jade Goody, have been awarded damages by the High Court regarding the illegal photography of her private burial.
The Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) and picture agency, NewsPics, were forced to pay £35,000 in compensation and legal costs to seven members of Goody’s family this week, after judges ruled that photographs of the star’s burial constituted a breach of confidence and invasion of privacy.
The People newspaper ran a picture of the day on the front page of their April 5th publication, which also contained an eight-page pullout labelled "funeral tribute" following Goody’s death from cervical cancer in March this year.
Law firm, Atkins Thomson, released the following statement this week: "Jade Goody’s close family, her mother Jackiey Budden, her grandparents John and Sylvia Caddock, her aunt and uncle Angela and Trevor Cox, and her cousins Lee and Danny Andrews, have settled their privacy action against MGN Limited and the photo agency NewsPics Limited in respect of photos that were taken of the private burial of Jade on 4th April."
In addition to the settlement, an agreement has been put in place by the High Court banning the "publish, republish, syndicate, use or disseminate of any of the photographs of the private burial or any similar photographs in the future."
MGN has written to the Goody family, accepting that "they had a reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of such photographs and apologise for the distress caused."
