[Prince Harry Calls for Police to Launch Fresh Investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s Newspaper Group
Prince Harry has called for police to launch a fresh investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper group after securing a “monumental victory” by settling his case over allegations of unlawful information gathering. The Duke of Sussex’s yearslong legal battle took an unexpected turn Wednesday, just as the trial was due to get underway, with the 40-year-old royal receiving an apology from the publisher that has also agreed to pay “substantial damages.”
The California-based duke had sued News Group Newspapers (NGN) – publisher of British tabloids The Sun and the now-shuttered News of the World – claiming journalists and private investigators working for the publications had targeted him and his family between 1996 and 2011. David Sherborne, Harry’s lawyer, told London’s High Court that NGN “offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.”
The settlement for Harry and his fellow claimant – ex-lawmaker and former Labour Party deputy leader Tom Watson – involved an eight-figure sum, which would likely include legal costs as well as damages. Court proceedings had been due to start Tuesday but were delayed after requests by lawyers on both sides. Ahead of the trial, which had been expected to last eight to 10 weeks, the tabloid group settled 1,300 other claims related to voicemail interception out of court, a spokesperson for the duke’s legal team previously said.
NGN also apologized for the phone hacking, surveillance, and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World, as well as the impact of the intrusion into the private life of his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said NGN’s actions had caused “distress caused to the duke” as well as “damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family.”
Harry and Watson, who also settled, had alleged that the tabloids engaged in unlawful information gathering and phone hacking between 2009 and 2011. Watson, who was present in court, said “these unlawful practices were not isolated incidents” and called on Murdoch to personally apologize to Harry, King Charles III and others “who suffered at the hands of his media empire.”
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