Prince Harry charged with ‘highly publicized defamation’ in phone hacking trial

Mirror newspaper group lawyers accused Prince Harry and three other applicants of being involved in a “highly publicized libel” of his former counsel in London’s High Court on Friday.

The court is hearing a high-profile lawsuit filed by the prince and three others, alleging that the Mirror group’s newspapers illegally harvested information on its three titles over nearly 20 years – between 1991 and 2011 – including through phone hacking and the use of private detectives.

The media group’s lawyers argue that the prince and the other plaintiffs – including Coronation Street actors Nikki Sanderson and Michael Turner, and Fiona Wightman, ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse – are “a long way off” proving the publisher has illegally collected information and told the court that no evidence of hacking was shown in the four cases.

But they also admitted that in three of the cases “certain evidence” shows that third parties were contracted to carry out the illegal collection of information.

The trial heard on Friday that Mirror Group Newspapers, which owns the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People, had already “paid £100m in damages and costs” and settled more than 600 other complaints related to the phone hacking and to the illegal collection of information by journalists. In 2015 it paid £1.2m in damages to eight victims of phone hacking after a High Court civil trial.

David Sherborne, the solicitor representing Prince Harry and the other appellants, told the court this week that the illegal intelligence-gathering and “surge in lawlessness” was known to Mirror Group’s senior executives at the time and was “successfully covered by the Plc”.

In his written arguments Sherborne said David Grigson, then chairman of the board, was alerted in 2012 to the phone hacking claims to newspapers by Brian Basham, a former journalist who ran an analytical firm’s research business.

The solicitor said senior executives including Piers Morgan, then editor of the Daily Mirror, as well as members of the board of directors of Trinity Mirror and MGN’s legal department, “knew or were aware of the use of these illegal businesses” . Sherborne stated that Morgan “was right at the heart of it in so many ways”. Morgan has always denied involvement in the phone hack.

Andrew Green KC, the lawyer representing Mirror Group Newspapers, told the High Court on Friday that the group “strongly denies” the allegations about the board and said there was a “real concern that there has been highly publicized reputation of the board and board members” with “extreme accusations of dishonesty”.

Green argued that the plaintiffs had not provided any direct evidence of any board member “making a false or dishonest statement” about knowledge of the illegal intelligence-gathering.

“In contrast, MGN has provided witness evidence from board members (which the appellants are unable to deny) denying such knowledge.” he added in written arguments.

He also said that many of the applicants’ allegations “were made with a sense of outrage” and said there was “nothing illegal” in third parties gleaning information from publicly available sources.

Mirror Group Newspapers also argued that the lawsuits had been filed too late.

Next week, the trial will begin hearing evidence from witnesses, including former Mirror journalists. Prince Harry is expected to testify in mid-June. The trial is expected to last seven weeks.

The case is just one of Prince Harry’s legal battles with the British media.

He is already suing Rupert Murdoch’s News UK group, for alleged phone hacking and misuse of private information. NewsGroup Newspapers denies the phone hack took place at its Sun newspaper and argued last month that the lawsuit should be dropped before trial because it was filed too late.

Prince Harry has also sued Associated Newspapers, which publishes Sunday’s Daily Mail and Mail, along with celebrities including singer Elton John, over alleged phone hacking and illegal information gathering. Associated “strongly denies” the claims and is seeking to have the case dismissed before trial.