Prince Harry’s phone knowingly hacked by U.K. tabloid, judge rules
Global News
The judge found phone hacking was “widespread” at Mirror Group Newspapers, and Prince Harry was awarded over £140,000 (about C$238,380).
Prince Harry won his historic phone hacking lawsuit Friday against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and was awarded over £140,000 (about C$238,380) in the first of several lawsuits against British tabloids to go to trial in his battles with the press.
Justice Timothy Fancourt in the High Court found phone hacking was “widespread and habitual” at Mirror Group Newspapers over many years and private investigators “were an integral part of the system” to gather information unlawfully on Harry and his associates. He said executives at the papers were aware of the practice and covered it up.
Fancourt found the newspapers had invaded the Duke of Sussex’s privacy by using unlawful information gathering to produce 15 of the 33 newspaper articles examined at trial as a representative sampling from nearly 150 Harry cited.
Harry said the ruling was “vindicating and affirming” and should serve as a warning to other news media that used similar practices, an overt reference to two tabloid publishers that face upcoming trials in lawsuits that make nearly identical allegations.
“Today is a great day for truth, as well as accountability,” Harry said in a statement read by his lawyer outside court. “I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press, it is a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.”
Fancourt awarded the duke damages for the distress he suffered and a further sum for aggravated damages to “reflect the particular hurt and sense of outrage” over the fact that two directors at Trinity Mirror knew about the activity and didn’t stop it.
“Instead of doing so, they turned a blind eye to what was going on and positively concealed it,” Fancourt said. “Had the illegal conduct been stopped, the misuse of the duke’s private information would have ended much sooner.”
Harry, the estranged younger son of King Charles III, had sought £440,000 (nearly C$749,205) as part of a crusade against the British media that bucked his family’s longstanding aversion to litigation and made him the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court in over a century.
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