The Duke of Sussex has said his £140,600 damages award after bringing a phone hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) at the High Court was a “great day for truth as well as accountability”.
Harry, 39, sued Mirror Group Newspapers for damages, claiming journalists at its titles – the Daily and Sunday Mirror and Sunday People – were linked to methods including phone hacking, so-called “blagging” or gaining information by deception, and use of private investigators for unlawful activities.
In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Fancourt concluded that the duke’s phone was probably hacked “to a modest extent” by the publisher.
He also found that there was “extensive” phone hacking generally by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) from 2006 to 2011, “even to some extent” during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.
Reading a statement on Harry’s behalf outside the High Court in London, 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.”
Harry’s case was heard alongside similar claims brought by actor Michael Turner, who is known professionally as Michael Le Vell and is most famous for playing Kevin Webster in Coronation Street, actress Nikki Sanderson and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse.
Mr Justice Fancourt oversaw a trial of the claims earlier this year.
Claims brought by Ms Sanderson and Ms Wightman were dismissed by Mr Justice Fancourt because they were made too late.
Mr Turner was awarded a total of £31,650 in damages after the judge ruled his phone hacking and unlawful information-gathering case was “proved only to a limited extent”.
