Prince Harry hacking case to hear if more claims are settled

Prince Harry’s hacking case may settle more claims in the future, after he won 15 claims against the Mirror group in December over stories about him.

In December, the prince won 15 claims in his case against the Mirror group over stories written about him.

On Friday, attorney David Sherborne announced that Mirror Group Newspapers, a British newspaper publisher, has agreed to compensate Prince Harry with a “significant” amount for breaching his privacy through phone hacking and other illicit surveillance methods. The publisher will cover all of Harry’s legal expenses, along with damages, and has committed to making an initial payment of £400,000 ($505,000) within a fortnight. The total compensation will be determined at a later date.

In December, Harry was granted damages totaling 140,000 pounds ($177,000) following a ruling by a judge who determined that phone hacking was widespread and consistent at Mirror Group Newspapers during the late 1990s and for more than a decade thereafter. The judge also found evidence of a cover-up by executives at the papers. Judge Timothy Fancourt noted that Harry’s phone had been hacked “to a limited extent.”

The settlement effectively prevents a new trial concerning 115 additional tabloid articles that Harry alleges stemmed from hacking or other forms of intrusion.

Mirror Group released a statement expressing satisfaction with the agreement, stating that it offers clarity for the company to move forward from events that occurred many years ago, for which they have issued apologies.

Harry’s legal action against the publisher of the Daily Mirror and two other tabloids is one aspect of his broader campaign against the British media. He holds the media responsible for the difficulties in his life and for the relentless pursuit of both his late mother, Princess Diana, and his wife, Meghan.

“Outside court, Harry’s attorney read a statement declaring, ‘Our mission persists.’ Harry made history in June as the first senior royal in over a century to testify in court, as part of his case against the Mirror.”

Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, was absent during Friday’s court ruling. He had traveled from his residence in California to London earlier in the week to visit his father, King Charles III, who has been diagnosed with cancer. Harry returned to the United States approximately 24 hours later.

Despite his absence, Harry continues to pursue legal action against the publishers of The Sun and Daily Mail for alleged unlawful intrusion. Notably, he recently withdrew a libel case against the Mail publisher following an unfavorable pretrial decision.

During a High Court session on Friday, the judge ruled that Mirror Group must cover some of the legal expenses for three other claimants whose cases were heard alongside Harry’s.

The judge, Fancourt, remarked that the court’s findings regarding Mirror Group’s misconduct vindicated all the claimants. He noted that the publisher’s efforts to conceal the truth had escalated legal costs.

Fancourt ordered Mirror Group to cover the “common costs” associated with a general case aiming to demonstrate the company’s wrongdoing, distinct from the costs incurred for individual claims.

Regarding the three additional claimants, the judge stated they must contribute to Mirror Group’s costs in their individual cases due to either inflated claims or refusal to accept reasonable settlement offers.

In December, the judge determined that the privacy of all four claimants had been breached. However, cases brought by actor Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman, the former spouse of comedian Paul Whitehouse, were dismissed due to being filed past the deadline. Actor Michael Turner’s claim saw partial success.

Phone hacking by British newspapers stretches back over twenty years, during which journalists seeking scoops routinely dialed the numbers of royals, celebrities, politicians, and athletes. Upon encountering voicemail prompts, they often resorted to default passcodes to listen in on messages.

The issue escalated into a major scandal in 2011 when it was revealed that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World had intercepted messages from a murdered girl, as well as from relatives of deceased British soldiers and victims of a bombing. Following this revelation, Murdoch closed the paper, and a former editor was incarcerated.

Subsequent investigations uncovered further invasive practices by newspapers, including phone tapping, home surveillance, and obtaining information through deceitful means such as “blagging” medical records.

Mirror Group Newspapers disclosed that they had paid over £100 million ($128 million) in settlements for other phone hacking lawsuits over the years but denied any wrongdoing in the case involving Harry. They maintained that they employed legitimate reporting methods to gather information about the prince.

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