Prince Harry wins phone hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers

Prince Harry has won £140,600 in damages after a judge ruled in a landmark High Court battle that he was a victim of phone hacking by tabloid newspapers over the course of six years.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, sued Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) after suffering years of paparazzi pursuits and 24-hour media scrutiny, accusing journalists, private investigators, and photographers of using illegal means to pursue stories.

In a bombshell legal claim, Harry said relationships had been wrecked and he had been left him paranoid and depressed. He claimed his private medical records had been obtained illegally – blagged –while his phone messages had been hacked and he had been unlawfully tracked.

At the High Court on Friday, Mr Justice Fancourt delivered a devastating ruling for the newspaper group, finding phone hacking had begun in 1996, becoming “habitual” and widespread two years later,and continuing until 2011 and even while the Leveson Inquiry was ongoing.

He said the company’s chief executiveSly Bailey and group legal director Paul Vickers knew about phone hacking and“turned a blind eye”, while newspaper editors actively hid the illegalpractice.

He said illegal activity was “concealed from the Board, Parliament, the Leveson Inquiry, shareholders, and from thepublic and readers”, as the work of private investigators was “integral” to thenewspaper’s work.

The judge ruled that 15 out of 33stories Harry had complained about had come from phone hacking and otherillegal newsgathering techniques, and found Harry and his associates had beenphone hacking victims.

“His phone was probably only hacked toa modest extent and this was carefully controlled by certain people at eachnewspaper”, the judge said.

“However it did happen on occasions, from the end of 2003 to April 2009.”

The judge said Harry“had a tendency… to assume thateverything published was the product of voicemail interception because phonehacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time. But phone hacking was not theonly journalistic tool at the time.”

He awarded the Princeaggravated damages for the “hurt andsense of outrage” he feels that phone hacking and illegal activities wereconcealed by senior figures.

Harry brought his claim alongside Coronation Streetactors Michael Le Vell and Nikki Sanderson, as well as comedian PaulWhitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman.

Claimsby Ms Sanderson and Ms Wightman were dismissed as being brought out of time,though the judge found they had been phone hacking victims.

Mr Le Vell, who plays Kevin Webster onthe soap, was awarded £31,650 in damages after he proved part of his case.

Today’s ruling – after the second major phone hacking trialinvolving MGN – is expected to lead to damages being awarded to dozens of other celebrities who fell victim to tabloid intrusion.

An MGN spokesperson said: “Wewelcome today’s judgment that gives the business the necessary clarity to moveforward from events that took place many years ago.

“Where historical wrongdoing tookplace, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paidappropriate compensation.”

Harryis the first Royal in modern times to voluntarily give evidence in the HighCourt, submitting himself to two days of gruelling questioning during aseven-week trial about his past relationships, controversies, and mentalstruggles.

Hediscussed his embarrassment after being pictured dressed in a Nazi fancy dress,denied “cavorting” with a friend of Princess Catherine, and said he was “livid”when paparazzi mysteriously found out about an evening with late TV starCaroline Flack.

MGN largely contested Harry’s claims and deniedthat any newspaper articles complained of resulted from phone hacking, whilecontending that the vast majority did not arise from any other unlawfulactivity.

The publisher made a limited admissions ofunlawful activity against Harry, Ms Sanderson and Ms Wightman and apologised,while fighting Mr Le Vell’s entire case.

Atthe start of the trial, Harry launched a stinging attack on journalists forhaving “blood on their hands” and shattered constitutional conventions with aswipe at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s “rock bottom government”.

He claimed his phone was systematicallyhacked and he was subjected to media intrusion and unlawful newsgatheringtechniques for more than 15 years by three newspapers, the Daily Mirror, SundayMirror and The People.

He vowed to “hold people to account forwhat they have done, so that they can’t hide behind their own institution ororganisation”, and accused the publisher of a “cover-up” over phone hacking andwidespread unlawful activities.

“People have died”, he said, “and peoplewill continue to kill themselves by suicide when they can’t see any other wayout.

“How much more blood will stain theirtyping fingers before someone can put a stop to this madness.”

Particular ire from the Prince was aimed atPiers Morgan, the former Daily Mirror editor, who he accused of “earwigging” onhis mother Princess Diana’s phone conversations with TV presenter MichaelBarrymore shortly before she died.

“(It) makes me feel physically sick andeven more determined to hold those responsible, including Mr Morgan, accountablefor their vile and entirely unjustified behaviour”, he said.

The judge found there had been no phonehacking at MGN prior to 1996, but did conclude the practice had becomewidespread while Mr Morgan was editor in 2003 and part of 2004.

Harry’s barrister David Sherborne suggestedthe media is to blame for strain in his relationship with Prince William.

“Trust begins to be eroded”, he said.“Mistrust set in from an early age because of exactly this sort of unlawfulactivity.”

Harry also told the court his romance withfirst love Chelsy Davy was put under immense strain and eventually wrecked asstories emerged that they believed had been leaked by their inner circle.

“We started to distrusteveryone around us”, he said. “We probably lost friends needlessly.”

Harry put forward 140 articles from MGNnewspapers from 1996 and 2011 which he says were produced using unlawfulmethods.

MGN offered “unreservedly apologies” at thestart of the trial for one instance of unlawful information gathering when aprivate investigator for The People obtained details of Harry’s evening atChinawhite club in Soho in February 2004.

Ms Sanderson told the court she felt under“frightening” surveillance by paparazzi as a young female celebrity, and saidnewspaper stories allegedly from unlawful activities had harmed her career. MrLe Vell said press stories had damaged his relationships with colleagues, asthey could not understand where private revelations had come from.

MGN was previously on the receiving end of a devastating 2015 ruling on phone hacking, when a judge awarded damages to aseries of celebrities including Coronation Street star Shobna Gulati and former footballer Paul Gascoigne. He found phone hacking had been "extensive and habitual" at the newspaper group.