Prince Harry this week became the first senior British royal to testify in more than 130 years in a court case involving phone hacking by British media group MGN.
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Prince Harry this week became the first senior British royal to take the witness stand in more than 130 years, seeking justice for him and wife Meghan Markle after what he said was a years-long hunt by the British media.
Harry – the youngest son of King Charles III, who resigned from royal duties in 2020 – spent a day and a half giving evidence to the High Court in London alleging he was unlawfully attacked by the Mirror Group, including over the phone to tap newspaper headlines (MGN).
MGN denies using illegal methods to obtain information about the prince.
The 38-year-old, who was represented in court by lawyer David Sherborne, claimed the intrusion went on for 15 years, from a child into his 20s, ruined his adolescence and Broken relationships, including with ex-girlfriend Chelsea David.
Although the allegations predate his relationship with Meghan, Harry told the court he was motivated to bring the case after a chance encounter with Sherborne, when they discussed how to “stop the abusive, intrusive treatment of me and my wife.” and hate” “
Phone tapping on an ‘industrial scale’
Prince Harry is one of more than 100 plaintiffs, including actors, who are suing MGN over allegations of illegal information collection over a two-decade period from 1991 to 2011.
The group alleges that MGN’s top editors and executives knew about and encouraged wrongdoing, including phone hacking — the illegal interception of voicemails.
MGN, publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, has previously admitted its publications are linked to phone hacking. But MGN’s lawyer, Andrew Green, said there was no evidence Harry was a victim.
Green described the allegations as “complete speculation”, saying some of the information published by the newspaper came from senior aides at Buckingham Palace, while other stories were based on details that had already been made public.
Andrew Green, a lawyer for Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), said there was no evidence Prince Harry was a victim of phone hacking.
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However, Harry said intimate details of his breakup with David and their fight over David’s trip to a strip club were not made public and were obtained through phone taps and a tracking device in her car.
The prince also broke royal protocol by saying he believed the British government and the media had “hit rock bottom” and suggesting his mother, Princess Diana, was a victim of phone hacking before she died in a car crash in 1997.
“I believe there is no doubt that the phone hacking of at least three newspapers at the time was on an industrial scale,” Harry told the court.
“Considering that Mirror Group has been hacked, making a decision against me and anyone else who supports me … I would feel a little unfair,” he added.
UK media focus
Harry’s testimony, which concluded on Wednesday, is part of a seven-week trial that ends in June, with a sentencing expected later this year.
The lawsuit is one of a series of misconduct cases brought by the prince against Britain’s News Corp, which includes Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp Newspapers and the Daily Mail’s publisher United Newspapers.
British tabloid media have used phone hacking and illegal means to obtain stories for years. Murdoch’s News International was found guilty in 2011 of its practices at the now-defunct News of the World and other British newspapers.
Since then, other papers have covered similar practices.
Harry’s younger brother Prince William was spotted settling down in April Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper arm was hacked in 2020 after a secret deal with Buckingham Palace, demanding “huge sums” in damages.