Prince Harry apologizes, big settlement from Murdoch’s UK tabloids over interference – The National

Prince Harry Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids claimed a stunning victory on Wednesday when he issued an unprecedented apology for decades of intrusion into his life and agreed to pay significant damages to settle a privacy lawsuit.

News Group Newspapers said Harry’s lawyer David Sherborne offered “a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for The Sun’s serious intrusion into his private life between 1996 and 2011”, in a statement to the court.

The statement even went beyond the case to acknowledge the intrusion into the life of Harry’s mother, the deceased. Princess Diana and the effect on his family.

“We acknowledge and apologize for the Duke’s pain, the damage to relationships, friendships and family, and agree to pay him substantial damages,” the headquarters said in a statement.

His phone was hacked and spied on

It was the first time the News Group has admitted wrongdoing at The Sun, which once sold millions of copies with its formula of sport, celebrity and sex, including topless women on page 3.

Harry has vowed to take his case to court to publicly expose the paper’s wrongdoing and win a court order upholding his claims.

In a statement read by his lawyer, Harry claimed he had achieved the accountability he sought for himself and hundreds of others, including ordinary people who were detained.

News Group acknowledged “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of personal data by journalists and private investigators” against Harry. NGN strongly denied the allegations before the trial.

“This is strong arming for hundreds of other claimants who will never learn the truth of what was done to them,” Sherborne said outside the High Court in London.

Inaccuracy is claimed above

The bombshell announcement came after the start of the trial was postponed for a day as last-minute negotiations heated up outside the court.

King Charles III’s youngest son Harry, 40, and former Labor MP Tom Watson were two of the more than 1,300 other claimants to settle lawsuits against News Group Newspapers over claims their phones were hacked. and investigators illegally interfered in their lives.

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Harry and Watson said in a joint statement read by Sherborne that the company had engaged in “perjury and cover-ups” to hide the truth over the years, deleting 30 million emails and other records.

“There was a broad conspiracy,” the statement said, adding that “senior officials willfully obstructed justice.”

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The News Group said in a statement that it will contest the destruction of evidence in court and continues to deny the allegations.

While the News Group apologized unreservedly for the error at the shuttered News of the World, it never did so at The Sun, which has vehemently denied the allegations.

A statement read by Sherborne took aim at CEO Rebekah Brooks, who was an editor at The Sun when she was acquitted in a criminal trial over phone hacking and now oversees the News Group.

“When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,” Rebekah Brooks said at trial in 2014. “Ten years later, when he became CEO of the company, they now admit they ran a criminal enterprise when he was editor of The Sun.”

NGN apologized for mistakes made by private eyes hired by The Sun, but not for anything the journalists did.

Two jobs down, one gone

Of all the cases brought against the publisher since a widespread phone-hacking scandal forced Murdoch to shut down the News of the World in 2011, Harry’s was the closest to trial.

Murdoch closed the newspaper after reporters from The Guardian reported that the police were looking for Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old schoolgirl who was murdered in 2002 by hacking her phone.

Harry’s lawsuit against NGN was one of three in which he accused British tabloids of invading his privacy by using private investigators to wiretap phone messages or illegally collect information on them.

His case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror ended in victory when a judge ruled that phone hacking was “widespread and commonplace” at the newspaper and its sister publications.

During the 2023 trial, Harry became the first senior member of the royal family to testify in court since the late 19th century, putting him at odds with the monarchy’s desire to ignore its problems.

The outcome in the News Group case raises questions about how his third case – against the publisher of the Daily Mail – will proceed. That trial was scheduled for next year.

The source of the bitter feud

Harry’s feud with the press dates back to his youth, when the tabloids enjoyed reporting on everything from his injuries to his girlfriends and drug use.

But his anger at the tabloids runs deeper.

He blames the media for the death of his mother, who died in a car accident in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi. He also blames them for continuous attacks against his wife, the actor Meghan Marklethis led to them leaving their royal life and fleeing to the United States in 2020.

Harry said in the documentary that the litigation was a source of friction in his family Tabloids on Trial.

He stated in court documents that his father opposed his claim. He also said he had settled a personal complaint against the News Group, which his lawyer for his older brother William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, said was worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.23 million).

“I’m doing it for my own reasons,” Harry told the documentary makers, though he wished his family would join him.

Harry and the other stopped

Harry was one of dozens of plaintiffs, including actor Hugh Grant, who initially alleged that News Group journalists and the investigators they hired breached their privacy between 1994 and 2016 by tricking them into intercepting voicemails, wiretapping phones, stealing cars and accessing classified information. .

Harry and former MP Tom Watson were among the original plaintiffs who were sent to court.

Watson, who was targeted by NGN when she was part of an investigation into allegations of tabloid wrongdoing, said the intrusion hit her and her family hard.

“I once said that the big beasts of the tabloid jungle have no predators,” Watson said. “I was wrong, they have Prince Harry. … We are grateful to him for his unwavering support and determination under extraordinary pressure.”

Watson, who also received the apology, called on Murdoch to issue a personal apology to Harry, the royal and “countless others” affected by the tabloid intrusion.

News Group said the settlements ended more than a decade of litigation after the News of the World closed.

NGN has now settled more than 1,300 claims without going to court. In doing so, Harry and Watson said they spent more than 1 billion pounds ($1.24 billion) in fees and court costs.