UK's Prince Harry wins damages from Daily Mirror over phone hacking

Britain's Prince Harry on Friday won a substantial part of his phone-hacking case against the Reach-owned Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper and other titles.

High Court judge Mr Justice Fancourt awarded him £140,600 in damages, adding that there was "no doubt” that the former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan and other senior editors, lawyers and executives at the newspaper group knew about phone hacking and other illegal information gathering. The prince had been seeking £440,000.

He found that 15 out of 33 articles related to Harry, whose formal title is the Duke of Sussex, focused on during the trial were the product of hacking from his mobile phone or unlawful information gathering.

Hailing the result as a victory, Harry said in a statement read out by his lawyer: “Today is a great day for truth, as well as accountability."

“The court has ruled that unlawful and criminal activities were carried out at all three Mirror group newspaper titles – the Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People – on a habitual and widespread basis for over more than a decade."

“This case is not just about hacking – it is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behaviour, followed by cover-ups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings.”

The judge ruled that unlawful investigations started in 1995 and were widespread from 1996 onwards; phone hacking began in 1996 and was “widespread and habitual” from 1998. He added that senior editors were aware of the activity but “the editors of the three newspapers did not report what they knew”.

He said that while most directors of the company did not know about illegal activity, Paul Vickers, the group legal director, “certainly knew about phone hacking from about the end of 2003” while the ex-Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey knew of hacking and “turned a blind eye”.

Reporting b y Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com