Milly £3m hacking payoff 'can't absolve NoW guilt'

Nick Clegg launched a fierce attack on the Murdoch media empire today and warned its offer of £3 million in compensation to the Milly Dowler family would not absolve it of its crimes.

The Deputy Prime Minister hit out as it emerged News International said it was in "advanced negotiations" with relatives of the murdered schoolgirl to settle their phone-hacking claim.

Milly's mobile phone was hacked by private investigator Glenn Mulcaire on behalf of the News of the World when she was missing in 2002.

Under the proposed out-of-court settlement, Milly's family would receive £2 million in personal damages and Rupert Murdoch would make a personal £1 million donation to charity.

However, Mr Clegg today told Nick Ferrari on LBC radio: "I don't think any response, frankly, can absolve News International and the journalists who pried into the Dowler's family privacy at such a terrible time. I don't think anything can absolve them for what they did. It was just so utterly grotesque."

The £3 million settlement dwarfs the amount offered to other phone-hacking victims. However, it is about the same amount reportedly received by Rebekah Brooks - the NoW editor at the time - when she left her post as NI chief executive in the wake of the scandal.