Tag: lawsuit

LONDON — Prince Harry and his legal team thrashed out a last-minute deal with Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group Wednesday to settle claims of widespread wrongdoing at the publisher. The prince received a “full apology” but fell short of his mission to hold British tabloids accountable in open court. 

The Duke of Sussex’s decision to settle his claims against News Group Newspapers (NGN) ends his efforts expose the misdeeds of the publisher of The Sun and long-shuttered News of the World in open trial.

Along with former lawmaker Tom Watson, Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, had sued NGN over alleged unlawful activities carried out by journalists and private investigators working for the newspapers. 

The group, which had long denied the allegations, offered what it called a “full and unequivocal apology” to Harry “for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life.”

In the British civil court system, a settlement often involves the accused covering the claimant’s legal fees, as well as handing over an additional cash payment.

NGN said it was sorry for intruding into the private life of Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales and apologized to Harry “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.”

Outside the London court where the trial had been due to take place, David Sherborne — the lawyer representing Harry and Watson — read out a statement on their behalf.

“After endless resistance, denials and legal battles by News Group Newspapers, including spending more than a billion pounds in payouts and in legal costs (as well as paying-off those in the know) to prevent the full picture from coming out, News UK [NGN’s parent company] is finally held to account for its illegal actions and its blatant disregard for the law,” Sherborne said.

Sherborne’s statement added that “Prince Harry and his immediate family have also had to repeatedly withstand aggressive and vengeful coverage since starting his claim over five years ago,” which he said had left them concerned for their safety.

“Today the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed. And today proves that no one stands above the law,” he said.

Harry first brought the lawsuit against NGN in 2019 and the eight-week trial was supposed to start Tuesday. He had been expected to testify for several days next month. 

But in a surprising twist — one that angered Judge Timothy Fancourt — both sides on Tuesday asked for more time to thrash out a deal. When Fancourt refused to allow a further delay until Wednesday, attorneys on both sides said they would go to the Court of Appeal to challenge his ruling, stalling the start of the trial. 

Ahead of the trial, Sherborne alleged the newspapers had used deception to obtain his clients’ medical, phone and flight records, as well as bugging homes and placing listening devices into cars. He also alleged that executives destroyed documents and used other methods to conceal the chicanery.  

NGN also issued what it called a “full and unequivocal apology” to Watson “for the unwarranted intrusion carried out into his private life during his time in Government by the News of the World during the period 2009-2011.”

When serving as a member of Parliament, Watson played a significant role in the initial inquiry into alleged phone-hacking by members of the British newspaper media. He also wrote a book charting the relationship between Murdoch-owned titles and politicians.

NGN’s apology said Watson had been “placed under surveillance in 2009 by journalists at the News of the World and those instructed by them.” The former deputy leader of the Labour Party, it added, had also been awarded “substantial damages.”

Harry, meanwhile, began positioning himself at odds with the royal family’s famous “never complain, never explain” attitude on the matter two years ago. He became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court since Queen Victoria’s eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, did so in the late 19th century. 

Harry revealed in court papers that his father opposed his litigation, but although other claimants including celebrities, sports stars and politicians settled cases with NGN, he had always said his mission was not to receive money but to get to the truth.  

NGN has already paid out hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by the News of the World but it has always denied there was wrongdoing at The Sun. It has also rejected allegations that senior figures knew about the activity or tried to cover it up. 

In a separate statement released as well as the apology, a spokesperson for NGN said the apology was “for incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun, not by journalists, during the period 1996-2011.”

“There are strong controls and processes in place at all our titles today to ensure this cannot happen now.” the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson also denied that Watson’s phone was hacked. “Had this gone to trial, NGN would have called evidence from telecoms experts to demonstrate that hacking after 2007 was nigh on impossible due to security upgrades undertaken by telecoms companies,” the spokesperson said.

Even if he had gone to trial and won, Harry could still have been on the hook for a multimillion-pound legal bill. Under English civil law, a claimant who wins a court judgment that is lower than what they were offered to settle, has to pay the legal bills for both sides. The law is designed to discourage lengthy trials. 

Actor Hugh Grant had been a claimant with Harry, but said in April that he was forced to accept “an enormous amount of money” to settle his case as he could have otherwise faced a large legal bill.