Prince Harry has landed a significant blow in his battle with the British tabloid press, after winning a substantial part of his phone-hacking case and damages against the Daily Mirror.
In a judgment that will have profound implications for the British media landscape, a high court judge has ruled that there was “extensive” phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers from 2006 to 2011, “even to some extent” during the Leveson inquiry into media standards.
Mr Justice Fancourt found that 15 out of 33 articles related to the Duke of Sussex which were focused on during the trial were the product of hacking from his mobile phone or unlawful information gathering.
He concluded that Harry’s phone was hacked “to a modest extent” from the end of 2003 to April 2009, which was carefully controlled by senior individuals at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People newspapers.
Recognising the “distress” caused to Harry as a result of published articles containing information that had been illegally gathered, the judge awarded him £140,600 in damages.
Reading a statement on the Duke of Sussex’s behalf outside the high court, his lawyer David Sherborne said: “Today is a great day for truth, as well as accountability.
“The court has ruled that unlawful and criminal activities were carried out at all three Mirror group newspaper titles – the Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People – on a habitual and widespread basis for over more than a decade.
“This case is not just about hacking – it is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behaviour, followed by cover-ups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings.”
A Mirror group spokesperson said: “We welcome today’s judgment that gives the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago. Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation.”
Over the course of a dramatic seven-week trial at the high court this year, the Duke of Sussex alleged that he had been targeted by the paper’s publisher for years, accusing it of hacking phones and other illegal behaviour to obtain scoops about his private life.
Harry became the first royal in 130 years to appear in a witness box at the trial, as he told the court that dozens of news stories – about his relationship with his former girlfriend Chelsy Davy and his family, as well as aspects of his military service and allegations of drug use – were published in the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and People between 1995 and 2011 after being obtained illegally.
The trial exposed the methods of the British tabloid newspapers, as well as the roles of the former Mirror editor Piers Morgan and the network of private investigators. Harry’s lawyers argued that senior editors and executives at Mirror Group Newspapers Ltd (MGN) knew about and rubber-stamped wrongdoings – accusations that MGN, which is owned by Reach, said were not supported by the evidence.
Harry was the most high profile of more than 100 claimants – including the singer Cheryl and the estate of George Michael – who were involved in the wider litigation. He was seeking £440,000 in damages, potentially one of the biggest ever phone-hacking settlements.
At times he appeared close to tears when giving evidence. He told the court that British newspapers had illegally targeted him all his life and then gone to “extreme lengths to cover their tracks” and described how press intrusion destroyed his relationships and left him with “bouts of depression and paranoia”.
He insisted there was “hard evidence” he was illegally targeted by the Mirror’s journalists and would feel “some injustice” if he lost the case, arguing that the fact that “phone hacking was at an industrial scale across at least three of the papers at the time” was “beyond doubt”.
Harry is known to have had his phone hacked by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World and is bringing two separate phone-hacking cases against the publisher of the Sun and the publisher of the Daily Mail.
MGN admitted during the trial that Harry had on one occasion been the victim of unlawful information gathering, but said he should be entitled to only £500 in damages. The publisher accepted that on one occasion a journalist at the People paid £75 to a private investigator to illegally obtain information about Harry’s visit to the London VIP nightclub Chinawhite in 2004, but argued the small sum suggested the “inquiries were limited”.
Andrew Green KC, the Mirror’s barrister, said the Mirror had hacked the voicemails of many celebrities during the 2000s and paid substantial damages to them – but argued that there was no evidence that its reporters had targeted Harry’s phone and said the newspaper publisher has been caught in the crossfire of the royal’s broader battles with the British media.
Green argued many of the stories about Harry that were supposedly obtained illegally were either “trivial”, or were provided by legitimate sources such as palace spokespeople, meaning Harry had no expectation of privacy.
David Sherborne, Harry’s barrister, told the high court that key evidence – including millions of emails and burner phones – that would support Harry’s claim had been destroyed on purpose. Key witnesses such as Piers Morgan were not called to give evidence, which he said left “enormous holes – we say fatal holes – in the defendant’s case” – and asked the judge to make a negative inference about their absence.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMicWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWd1YXJkaWFuLmNvbS91ay1uZXdzLzIwMjMvZGVjLzE1L3ByaW5jZS1oYXJyeS13aW5zLXBhcnRpYWwtdmljdG9yeS1waG9uZS1oYWNraW5nLWNhc2UtZGFpbHktbWlycm9y0gFxaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAudGhlZ3VhcmRpYW4uY29tL3VrLW5ld3MvMjAyMy9kZWMvMTUvcHJpbmNlLWhhcnJ5LXdpbnMtcGFydGlhbC12aWN0b3J5LXBob25lLWhhY2tpbmctY2FzZS1kYWlseS1taXJyb3I?oc=5
2023-12-15 13:01:00Z
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