When Paul Gascoigne started seeing private conversations and details of his life appearing in the newspapers, he became convinced somebody close to him was selling stories about him. The problem was that some of the things being printed had only been discussed on the phone with people he trusted. Gascoigne knew something was wrong. But nobody believed him. “I knew my phone was getting hacked. I knew 110%.” The more Gascoigne tried to explain what he thought was happening, the more paranoid he appeared. Even his therapist told him that was what it was. Gascoigne was adamant. “There’s f*** all wrong with me. I know I’m getting hacked.” He remembered having six phones at once and still using the public phone box outside because he no longer trusted any of them. He even flew to Spain simply to buy another phone in the hope nobody would know the number. Stories continued appearing. Gascoigne started looking at the people closest to him. “The only people I spoke to were my mum and dad, and it kept coming out in the newspapers.” So he decided it must be them. “I was thinking, ‘Mum and dad, what the f*** are you doing?’” “Why are you speaking to the papers?” He stopped speaking to them. At different points he also suspected friends and other members of his family, because he could not understand how journalists seemed to know conversations that had taken place in private. Gascoigne later said the fallout with his parents lasted for months. “That destroyed us.” He spent tens of thousands of pounds in surveillance shops buying equipment designed to find hidden cameras and listening devices. When he went into treatment, he struggled to speak openly in group sessions because he feared other patients might be passing information to journalists. For two years, he stopped speaking to some members of his own family because he believed they were betraying him. Gascoigne said Saturday nights became particularly bad because he would sit wondering what might appear in the Sunday papers. “I couldn’t wait for that to end.” For years, Gascoigne had been told that what he believed was happening to his phone was part of his paranoia. Eventually, the truth started coming out. Mirror Group Newspapers later admitted that 18 articles about Gascoigne had resulted from illegal activity, and the High Court heard that his phone had been targeted over a period stretching from 2000 to 2010. In 2015, Gascoigne finally went to court. He had waited years for the chance to sit opposite the people he believed had helped turn his life into something he could no longer trust. He told the court that he had been too frightened to speak freely to his parents, his children or almost anyone else. “It was just horrendous.” Then the lawyers representing Mirror Group Newspapers announced that they were not going to cross-examine him. Gascoigne could barely believe it. “I’ve waited 15 years to be sat here.” “I’m disgusted really. Fifteen years.” Gascoigne had spent years changing phones, buying surveillance equipment, accusing his own family and being told that what he believed was happening was in his head. Before leaving the witness box, he asked to say one final thing. “I’d like to trade my mobile in for a coffin because these guys have ruined my life.” Two months later, the judgment came. The court ruled that phone hacking at the Mirror titles had been “widespread and frequent” and awarded Gascoigne £188,250 in damages. For years, people around him had treated his fears as paranoia. But the court found that Mirror Group Newspapers had been hacking his phone. Gascoigne had been right about it all along. #football