PA
The Duke of Sussex has been awarded £140,600 after bringing a phone hacking claim against a tabloid newspaper publisher at the High Court.
Mr Justice Fancourt concluded 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.
The judge also ruled that the Duke’s phone was probably hacked “to a modest extent” by the publisher.
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.
His 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.
The allegations in their claims about unlawful activity at MGN’s titles covered a period from as early as 1991 until at least 2011, the court was previously told.
Mr Justice Fancourt, the judge who oversaw a trial of the claims earlier this year, delivered his ruling at a hearing on Friday.
The high-profile trial ended in June after seven weeks of evidence from dozens of witnesses, including former journalists, editors, private investigators and MGN executives.
Many other witnesses also submitted written testimony to the trial, such as the friends, family and colleagues of those bringing cases against the publisher.
Harry faced eight hours of questioning over two days during a witness box appearance that drew the attention of the world’s media.
MGN largely contested the claims and denied that any newspaper articles complained of resulted from phone hacking, while contending that the vast majority did not arise from any other unlawful activity.
The publisher made a limited number of admissions of unlawful activity in relation to the duke, Ms Sanderson and Ms Wightman, for which the publisher apologised and accepted they will be entitled to some damages, but denied the majority of their claims and Mr Turner’s entire case.
Hacked Off CEO Nathan Sparkes said: “Today’s judgement lays bare the extraordinary cover-up which has taken place at Mirror Group Newspapers over the last two decades. It paints the picture of a rotten corporate culture, desperate to escape accountability at all costs. Other newspaper groups will also be looking over their shoulders, as this judgement shows that justice may yet catch up with them all.
“It is now, on the basis of the findings in today’s judgement, for the police to pursue charges of perjury against any senior individuals at the publisher who misled the first part of the Leveson Inquiry in their denials of knowledge of phone hacking.
“The findings today should not be emerging in the context of a civil trial, so many years after allegations of phone hacking were first made. They should instead have been investigated through the promised Public Inquiry, known as Leveson Part Two, which was cancelled by the Conservative government as a sop to the press. Only such an inquiry is capable of getting to the bottom of this scandal once and for all.
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