Prince Harry Settles Further Telephone Hacking Case Against MGN

In a previous blog, the telephone hacking case pursued by Prince Harry against the Mirror Group was discussed. In that case, Prince Harry successfully argued that MGN had published 15 stories that relied upon information gathered by way of unlawful telephone hacking and was accordingly awarded £140,600 in damages. This, however, left unresolved the further case pursued by Prince Harry against MGN for a further 115 stories that Prince Harry alleged could only have arisen as a result of similar practices.

Prince Harry has now settled that case. This should not be considered an easy win for Prince Harry, as the case was bitterly fought over four years and Prince Harry himself had to spend two full days in Court being cross-examined on whether the information could have been gathered in any other way. In this regard, the presiding Judge, Mr Justice Fancourt, was highly critical of both parties’ adversarial approach to the proceedings.

Prince Harry has reportedly settled the matter for around £300,000 in addition to payment of his legal costs (which after a four-year bitterly fought set of proceedings are likely to be very substantial). Mr Sherborne, Counsel for Prince Harry, read a statement on behalf of Prince Harry, calling for the rule of law to be upheld and for no one to be deemed above it, including Mr Morgan, who was editor at the time. He said that the Judge had stated in his judgment that they had uncovered and evidenced the “shockingly dishonest way Mirror Group has acted” and, referring to Mr Morgan, stated “even his own employer knew that they could not call him as a witness of fact in this case”.

Assuming the settlement is around £300,000, the fact of the settlement and its value is perhaps not surprising given the previous successful case and the level of the award in that matter.