Prince Harry is set to receive a significant payout from a British newspaper that unlawfully hacked his phone to obtain stories, thereby concluding the legal case. Earlier, the High Court in London had already granted him £140,600 ($268,000) in damages for at least 15 stories published by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) that were a result of phone hacking. Recently, Harry’s legal team proposed a settlement to MGN, which they agreed to.
Following this, Prince Harry stated that the former editor of the Mirror, now a TV personality and commentator, Piers Morgan, was fully aware of the illegal activities occurring at the paper during his tenure.
The exact settlement amount hasn’t been revealed, but according to BBC reports, Prince Harry will receive around £300,000 ($581,000). Additionally, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) will pay him £400,000 ($774,500) for his legal fees.
When factoring in these payouts and the recovered legal costs, it’s estimated that over a million dollars will be deposited into the Sussex’s bank account.
MGN’s legal expenses, anticipated to exceed £2 million ($3.87m), are also part of the equation, as the company is owned by UK media giant Reach.
The settlement concludes the legal proceedings, meaning further trials to investigate potential illegal activity leading to 115 more stories about the prince will not occur. However, this also means that had Prince Harry pursued those cases and won, he might have received even higher damages.
Following the conclusion of the court case, Prince Harry, now residing in the US, criticized Piers Morgan, who served as editor of the Mirror from 1995 to 2004. Through his solicitor, David Sherborne, Harry stated that Morgan was well aware of the illicit practices during his time at the paper.
“Even his own employer realised it simply could not call him as a witness of truth at the trial.
“His contempt for the court’s ruling and his continued attacks ever since demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed Judgement.”
Morgan has angrily refuted the accusation. In December, he said he had “zero knowledge” of the one piece about Prince Harry that may be directly related to phone hacking when he was editor.
He stated that he had “never hacked a phone” as an editor or instructed anybody else to do so
“Nobody has provided any actual evidence to prove that I did.”
In Friday’s statement, Harry continued: “I believe in the positive change it will bring for all of us. It’s the very reason why I started this, and why I will continue to see it through to the end.”
Prince Harry asserted that he was subjected to targeting for over 15 years, resulting in more than 140 stories published in MGN’s newspapers through illegal means of information gathering.
However, the trial held in December only examined 33 of these stories. Justice Timothy Fancourt concluded that 15 of the sampled articles were indeed produced through phone hacking or other unlawful methods of acquiring information.
In his ruling, Justice Fancourt noted that Prince Harry tended to presume that all articles about him were the outcome of hacking, though he was correct in some instances.
“I have found the duke’s case of voicemail interception and unlawful information gathering proved in part only,” Justice Fancourt said.
“I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper.
“However, it did happen on occasions from about the end of 2003 to April 2009 (which was the date of the last article that I examined).
“There was a tendency for the duke in his evidence to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time.
“But, phone hacking was not the only journalistic tool at the time and his claims in relation to the other 18 articles did not stand up to careful analysis.”
In December, Judge Timothy Fancourt concluded that Piers Morgan was well aware of the hacking activities taking place during his tenure and, along with former Mirror CEO Sly Bailey, chose to ignore them. MGN issued an apology for the verified instances of hacking.
In a statement, a spokesman for the publisher said: “We welcome today’s judgment that gives the business the necessary clarity to move forward from events that took place many years ago”.
“Where historical wrongdoing took place, we apologise unreservedly, have taken full responsibility and paid appropriate compensation.”