Prince Harry’s court battle was briefly delayed in the early morning of the trial By Reuters

By Michael Holden and Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) – The start of Prince Harry’s court battle against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group was briefly delayed at London’s High Court on Tuesday.

Harry and former lawmaker Tom Watson are suing News Group Newspapers over alleged wrongdoing by journalists and private investigators working for their newspapers, the Sun and the defunct News of the World, from 1996 to 2011 .

At what was supposed to be the start of an eight-week trial, Harry and Watson’s lawyer, David Sherborne, asked the judge, Timothy Fancourt, for more time.

“I’m sure your lordship can understand why this might be necessary,” Sherborne said without elaboration.

The prince said that his mission is not money, but to get to the truth, after other claimants settled the cases to avoid the risk of a legal bill of millions of pounds that could be imposed even if they won in court but had rejected NGN’s offer.

“One of the main reasons to see this is accountability, because I’m the last person who can really get this,” Harry, who will be a witness himself in February, said last month.

NGN has paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims of phone hacking and other illegal information gathering by the News of the World, and has settled more than 1,300 lawsuits involving celebrities, politicians, famous sports figures and ordinary people who were connected with them or great events.

Harry’s legal team said in previous court documents that his older brother Prince William, the heir to the throne, had settled his own case against NGN in 2020 for “a very large sum of money”.

While Murdoch closed the News of the World in 2011, the publisher has always rejected claims that there was any illegal activity at the Sun and says it will fully defend the claims.

The eight-week trial will first consider “general issues” such as the extent of any phone hacking and illegal information gathering to newspapers.

Harry’s team claims senior executives and editors knew illegal behavior was widespread, and claims they misled the police, provided false statements to a public inquiry into media ethics held from 2011 to in 2012 and instigated a massive cover-up with the deletion of millions of emails.

“This allegation is false, untenable, and is strongly denied,” said a spokesperson for NGN. “NGN will call a number of witnesses including technologists, lawyers and senior staff to defeat the claim.”