Prince Harry gets apology, big deal from Murdoch’s British tabloids for intrusion – National

Prince Harry claimed a monumental victory on Wednesday as Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids made an unprecedented apology for intruding on his life for decades and agreed to pay substantial damages to settle his invasion of privacy lawsuit.

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

The statement also went beyond the scope of the case to acknowledge the intrusion into the life of Harry’s late mother. Princess Diana and the impact it had on his family.

“We recognize and apologize for the distress caused to the duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family, and we have agreed to pay substantial damages,” the settlement statement said.

His phone was hacked and he was spied on

It was the first time News Group has acknowledged wrongdoing at The Sun, a newspaper that once sold millions of copies with its formula of sport, celebrity and sex – including topless women on Page 3.

Harry had vowed to take his case to trial to publicly expose the newspaper’s wrongdoing and win a court ruling supporting his claims.

In a statement read by his lawyer, Harry said he had achieved the accountability he was seeking for himself and for hundreds of others, including ordinary people, who were targeted.

News Group acknowledged “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators” targeting Harry. NGN had strongly denied these allegations before trial.

“This represents a claim for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed to establish themselves without being able to get to the truth of what was done to them,” Sherborne said outside the High Court in London.

Presumed wrong at the top

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

Harry, 40, the youngest son of King Charles III, and Tom Watson, a former member of Parliament for the Labor Party, were the only two remaining claimants out of more than 1,300 others who had settled lawsuits against News Group Newspapers for accusations that their phones were hacked. and the investigators illegally intruded into his life.

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

“There was an extensive conspiracy,” the statement said, in which “senior executives deliberately obstructed justice.”

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News Group said in a statement that it would dispute at trial that the evidence was destroyed and continues to deny these accusations.

While News Group had issued an unreserved apology for its wrongdoing in closing the News of the World, it had never done so in The Sun and had vehemently denied these allegations.

The statement read by Sherborne took aim at Rebekah Brooks, now the CEO who oversees News Group, who had been the editor of The Sun when she was acquitted in a criminal trial in a phone hacking case.

“At her trial in 2014, Rebekah Brooks said: ‘When I was editor of The Sun, we ran a clean ship,'” she said. “Ten years later, when she is CEO of the company, now they admit, when she was editor of The Sun, they run a criminal enterprise.

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

Two cases down, one to go

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

Murdoch shut down the paper after the Guardian reported that tabloid reporters hacked in 2002 the phone of murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl Milly Dowler while police were searching for her.

Harry’s case against NGN was one of three he brought accusing British tabloids of violating his privacy by intercepting his phone messages or using private investigators to illegally help him make scoops.

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

During this trial in 2023, 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 keep its problems out of sight.

The result in the case of the News Group raises questions about how its third case – against the editor of the Daily Mail – will proceed. That process is expected next year.

Source of a bitter dispute

Harry’s feud with the press dates back to his youth, when the tabloids delighted in reporting on everything from his injuries to his girlfriends to drugs.

But his anger with the tabloids goes much deeper.

He blames the media for the death of his mother, who was killed in a car accident in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi in Paris. He also blames them for the persistent attacks on his wife, an actor Meghan Marklewhich led them to leave real life and flee to the United States in 2020.

The dispute was a source of friction in his family, Harry said in the documentary Tabloids on trial.

She revealed in court documents that her father opposes her lawsuit. He also said his older brother William, Prince of Wales and heir to the throne, had settled a private complaint against News Group that his lawyer said was worth more than 1 million pounds ($1.23 million) .

“I’m doing this for my own reasons,” Harry told the documentarians, although he said he wished his family had joined him.

Harry and the other held back

Harry was initially one of dozens of claimants, including actor Hugh Grant, who claimed that News Group reporters and investigators they hired violated his privacy between 1994 and 2016 by intercepting voicemails, tapping phones, bugging cars and using deception to access confidential information.

Of the original group of suitors, Harry and former lawmaker Tom Watson were the holdouts heading into the trial.

Watson, who was targeted by NGN as part of an investigation into allegations of tabloid abuse, said the intrusion had taken a heavy toll on himself and his family.

“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 his determination under extraordinary pressure.”

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

News Group said the settlements mark the end of more than a decade of litigation after the News of the World was shut down.

NGN has now settled more than 1,300 claims without going to trial. In doing so, he spent more than 1 billion pounds ($1.24 billion) in payments and legal costs, Harry and Watson said in their statement.