The High Court in London has ruled in favor of Prince Harry in his hacking case against the Mirror Group, the media company which owns the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror. The judge ruled that Harry proved several parts of his case – 15 out of 33 articles related to hacking or unlawful methods of newsgathering. The Mirror Group had asked for Harry to be awarded £500, while Harry was asking for an award of £440,000. The judge awarded Harry £140,600.
Britain’s High Court ruled that Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, was the victim of phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), publisher of the Daily Mirror tabloid, on Friday. He has been awarded 140,600 pounds, which is about $180,000 in damages.
The presiding judge in the case at Britain’s High Court, Justice Timothy Fancourt, said in a statement that he had awarded Harry the “modest” sum, as the case had shown the Mirror Group “only played a small part in everything that the Duke suffered” and “was not responsible for all the unlawful activity that was directed at the Duke, and that a good deal of the oppressive behaviour of the Press towards the Duke over the years was not unlawful at all.”
The judge said he’d found that only 15 out of the 33 articles that were scrutinized in the case were the product of phone hacking or other illegal 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,” Fancourt said. “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.”
He said he’d determined the award for the prince “in respect of each of the articles and invoices where unlawful information gathering was proved” and “to compensate the Duke fully for the distress that he suffered as a result of the unlawful activity directed at him and those close to him.”
In a statement read by his lawyer after the judgement, Mr Sherborne quotes Harry as saying that since the claim was brought: “Defamatory stories and intimidating tactics have been deployed against me and at my family’s expense.”
The prince wrote he has learnt patience is a virtue “in the face of vendetta journalism”.
“I am happy to have won the case, especially as this trial only looked at a quarter of my entire claim.”
“I respectfully call on the authorities, financial regulator, police to do their duty and investigate bringing charges against Daily Mirror Group,” Harry said in his statement. “Today’s ruling is vindicating and affirming. I have 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.”
[From CBS News & Sky News]
“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…” I mean, tabloid journalists were also stalking and harassing people, bribing people, hacking into email accounts, breaking into doctor’s offices and private homes and more. Sure, it wasn’t all “hacking” in Harry’s case – some of it was leaking from his father’s office as well. Harry’s statement is great – and I hope that this changes the view of years of hacking – this was criminal behavior. So much said in that simple statement. Anyway, I’m very proud of Harry. I thought everything was being lined up for a defeat for Haz.
— Omid Scobie (@scobie) December 15, 2023
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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