Prince Harry has entered the witness box to become the first senior royal in more than a century to testify in court in his case against the publisher of the Daily Mirror over alleged unlawful information gathering.
Harry is accusing Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) of using methods such as phone hacking, so-called “blagging”, and using private investigators for unlawful activities.
MGN began Tuesday’s proceedings by apologizing to Harry for an article in 2004 about the duke’s visit to a London nightclub that it accepts was the product of unlawful information gathering.
‘It should never have happened, and it won’t happen again’, Andrew Green KC said. MGN denies all other wrongdoing.
Harry said in his opening comments, “I was a child; I was at school.”
The publisher of the UK tabloid The Daily Mirror has apologized to Prince Harry for using unlawful methods to gather information about his private life.
Recap of the Controversial Article
In court documents published Wednesday on the first day of a phone hacking trial, Mirror Group Newspapers, which Reach now owns, said it “unreservedly apologizes and accepts that [Harry] is entitled to appropriate compensation” for one instance of unlawful information gathering nearly 20 years ago.
The incident involved a private investigator paid £75 ($95) in 2004 by the Sunday People, a tabloid owned by the same group, to gather information about the Duke of Sussex while at a London nightclub.
“[Mirror Group Newspapers] does not know what information this related to, although it had some connection with his conduct at the nightclub,” the publisher said, admitting that the payment “represented an instruction to engage in [unlawful information gathering].”
The Duke of Sussex and three other claimants representing dozens of celebrities are suing Mirror Group Newspapers, accusing its titles of obtaining private information by hacking and other illicit means, including private investigators, between 1991 and 2011.
Impact on the Mirror’s Reputation
Mirror Group Newspapers is contesting most of the allegations, arguing in its court filings that some claims have been brought too late and that there is insufficient evidence of phone hacking in all four cases.
The case against the newspaper publisher is one of several lawsuits Harry and his wife, Meghan, filed in their long-running battle with British tabloids, which they have accused of privacy breaches and publishing false stories.
According to Reuters, the pair has filed at least seven lawsuits against British and US media organizations since 2019, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers. News Group Newspapers published the Sun and used to produce News of the World, which was shut down in 2011 over its phone hacking scandal.
On Wednesday, Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said his claim against Mirror Group Newspapers, which covers incidences from 1995 to 2011, is “significant not just in terms of the period but in the range of activity it covers.”
Steps Taken by the Mirror
Harry was subject to the most “intrusive methods of obtaining personal information,” Sherborne said, arguing that “no one should be subjected to that.” The “unlawful methods” were “habitual and widespread” among journalists and editors, Sherborne added.
The Duke of Sussex was not present for the first day of the hearing at London’s High Court, which came just days after he attended the coronation of his father, King Charles III, in nearby Westminster Abbey. According to UK media, he is due to give evidence himself in June.
The trial, expected to last seven weeks, will also review claims made along similar lines by English actress Nikki Sanderson, the comedian Paul Whitehouse’s ex-wife Fiona Wightman and the actor Michael Turner.
A spokesperson for Mirror Group Newspapers said in a statement Wednesday that “where historical wrongdoing” has taken place, the group has taken “full responsibility” and apologized “unreservedly” for its actions.
Press Ethics and Responsibility
Mirror Group Newspapers “is now part of a very different company. We perform to acting with integrity, and our objective in this trial is to allow both the business and our journalists to move forward from events many years ago,” the statement added.
A British tabloid publisher has apologized to Prince Harry for unlawfully seeking information about him at the start of a lawsuit the royal is bringing over alleged “industrial-scale” phone hacking.
Harry, 38, and some 100 celebrities, including actors, sports stars, singers and TV personalities, are suing publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), accusing its titles of habitually accessing private information by widespread phone-hacking, deception and other illicit means between 1991 and 2011.
The claimants say the unlawful behaviour at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People had occurred with the full knowledge of senior editors and top executives who they say knew about it, approved it and actively covered it.
