Prince Harry wins 15 of 33 hacking claims against Mirror Group Newspapers | Royal | News | Express.co.uk
One of Prince Harry’s court cases has finally reached a conclusion today.
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Prince Harry is finding out the outcome of his case against MGN (Image: Getty)
Prince Harry has been awarded £140,600 after winning 15 out of 33 cases in a High Court hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). In June, Prince Harry made history when he appeared in the witness box in his case against MGN, undergoing almost eight hours of questioning and appeared emotional when he eventually concluded his testimony.
Today, a High Court judge has ruled that there was “extensive” phone hacking by MGN from 2006 to 2011, “even to some extent” during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.
The Duke was suing MGN for damages and claimed its titles, The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, were linked to methods including unlawful interception, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
He alleged about 140 articles published between 1996 and 2010 by MGN titles The Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People contained information gathered using unlawful methods. A total of 33 were selected for consideration at the trial.
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.
“I’d like to thank my legal team for so successfully dismantling the sworn testimony of Mirror Group’s senior executives, legal department and journalists who at least turned up, unlike their colleagues, who were perhaps too afraid to do so.
“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.
In a summary of his ruling, Mr Justice Fancourt outlined his findings over Harry’s case against Mirror Group Newspapers.
The judge said: “I have found the duke’s case of voicemail interception and unlawful information gathering proved in part only. I found that 15 out of the 33 articles that were tried were the product of phone hacking of his mobile phone or the mobile phones of his associates, or the product of other unlawful information-gathering.
“I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper. However, it did happen on occasions from about the end of 2003 to April 2009 (which was the date of the last article that I examined).
“There was a tendency for the duke in his evidence to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time. But phone hacking was not the only journalistic tool at the time and his claims in relation to the other 18 articles did not stand up to careful analysis.”
MGN contested Harry’s claim and denied that any of the articles complained of resulted from unlawful interception of voicemail.
Following the ruling, an MGN 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.”
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