A British newspaper has agreed to pay Prince Harry a “substantial” amount of costs and damages for violating his privacy through phone hacking and other illegal snooping, his lawyer said Friday. Announced.
Lawyer David Sherborne agreed that Mirror Group Newspapers would pay Harry’s full legal costs and damages, with an interim payment of £400,000 ($505,000) within 14 days. He said it was planned. The last tab will be evaluated later.
Harry was awarded £140,000 (approximately $177,000) in damages in December after a judge found that: Phone hacking was “widespread and routine” The scandal at the Mirror Group Newspapers in the late 1990s lasted for more than a decade and was covered up by newspaper executives. Judge Timothy Fancourt found that Prince Harry’s mobile phone had been hacked “to some extent”.
Mirror Group said in a statement: “We are pleased to have reached this agreement. It provides further clarity that our business will move forward from the events that occurred many years ago and for which we have apologized.” .
Prince Harry’s lawsuit against the publishers of the Daily Mirror and two other tabloids is one of several he has launched in a campaign against the British media, which Prince Harry claims has ruined his life. and has accused him of hounding both his late mother, Princess Diana, and his wife, Duchess Meghan.
“Our mission continues,” Prince Harry said in a statement read by his lawyer outside court.
Appointed as the first senior member of the royal family in June Testifies in court for the first time in more than a century During the trial of his lawsuit against Miller Corporation.
Prince Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, did not appear in court for Friday’s sentencing.he I traveled from my home in California to London. He was there to visit his father, Charles III, who was diagnosed with cancer earlier this week. Harry flew back to the United States about 24 hours later.
Prince Harry is currently pursuing legal action against the publishers of The Sun and Daily Mail over allegations of illegal snooping. He recently dropped a defamation lawsuit against the Mail publisher following an unfavorable pretrial ruling.
At a High Court hearing on Friday, a judge ordered Mirror Group to pay part of the legal costs of three other plaintiffs whose case was being tried alongside Harry’s.
Fancourt said the court’s findings into Mirror Group’s misconduct “vindicated all plaintiffs” and said the publisher’s “attempts to conceal the truth” had increased legal costs. Ta.
Reuters
He ordered the publisher to pay “common costs” in a public lawsuit seeking to prove the company’s wrongdoing. This is in addition to the legal costs of preparing and filing an individual’s particular claim.
The judge said the other three claimants must pay some of Miller Group’s costs in separate lawsuits because they made exaggerated claims or did not accept reasonable settlement offers. .
A judge found in December that the privacy of all four plaintiffs had been violated, but the lawsuit brought by actor Nicky Sanderson and Fiona Wightman, ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse, was filed too late. It was discarded as such. Actor Michael Turner’s argument was partially successful.
British newspaper phone hacking dates back more than 20 years, when scoop-hungry journalists regularly called the phone numbers of royals, celebrities, politicians and athletes and were encouraged to leave messages. Back in the days when people used to tap voicemails by entering default passcodes.
In 2011, it was revealed that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World had intercepted messages from murdered girls, relatives of dead British soldiers, and bombing victims. The act developed into a full-fledged scandal. Murdoch shut down the paper and the former News of the World editor was jailed.
It was later discovered that the newspaper had used other methods of infiltration, including wiretapping of telephones, eavesdropping on homes, and “bragging” details of medical records, or obtaining information through deception.
Mirror Group Newspapers said the company had paid out more than 100 million pounds ($128 million) in other phone-hacking cases over the years, but denied any wrongdoing in Harry’s case. He said he used legitimate reporting methods to obtain information about the prince.
