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Partial victory for Prince Harry as Murdoch’s British tabloids admit illegal activities


Prince Harry signed up as “last person” who could call the British tabloids to account for years of predatory behavior during the phone hacking scandal. On Wednesday, he settled for a partial victory in his lone campaign.

Harry settled a long-running lawsuit with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers over illegal information gathering, received a multimillion-dollar payout and, perhaps more significantly, recognition of “illegal” behavior private investigators hired by The Sun, the company’s leading tabloid.

But the settlement averted several weeks of damaging testimony about phone hacking and other illegal actions the News Group used to find personal information about Harry and other high-profile figures more than a decade ago. Harry, who did not appear in court on Wednesday, was due to testify next month.

It marked the end of an era of high-profile legal cases that grew out of the hacking scandal, one of the darkest periods in British media history. And it gave Harry a long-sought recognition for the tabloids’ relentless involvement in the life of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being followed by photographers.

News Group Newspapers offered a “full and unequivocal apology” for hacking Harry’s mobile phone and intruding into his personal life and Diana’s life, “especially during his younger years.”

“We acknowledge and apologize for the distress the Duke has caused and the damage to relationships, friendships and family and have agreed to pay him substantial compensation,” the company said in a contrite five-paragraph statement, referring to Harry by his formal title, Duke of Sussex.

The settlement, announced a day after the trial began at London’s High Court, spared Harry, 40, the younger son of King Charles III, a heavy financial risk, regardless of how he fared in court.

Under English law, aimed at settling disputes out of court where possible, Harry would have to pay both sides’ legal costs unless the court awarded him an amount equal to what News Group had offered him in the settlement.

While neither side disclosed the amount of the financial settlement, it was worth at least 10 million pounds ($12.3 million), according to two people familiar with the negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the parties agreed not to disclose the number.

The last-minute deal underlined the unforgiving economy for private individuals battling deep-pocketed corporations in Britain. Mr Murdoch’s companies used the lucrative payouts to prevent trials in 1,300 cases stemming from the phone-hacking scandal. Harry’s older brother, Prince William, has agreed to a “huge sum of money” in 2020, according to Harry’s filing in his own case.

In Aprilactor Hugh Grant said he felt compelled to settle his hacking case against News Group Newspapers because “even if every allegation was proven in court, I would still be liable for something approaching £10 million in costs. I’m afraid I’m ashamed of that fence.”

In the United States, Fox News Mr. He paid Murdoch $787.5 million in April 2023 settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over the cable network’s promotion of false claims about Dominion’s voting machines in the 2020 election.

News Group Newspapers announced Wednesday that after decades of hacking-related lawsuits, the settlement “draws a line under the past and puts an end to this litigation.” It noted that the judge in the case, Timothy Fancourt, noted that those cases were the last with a good chance of going to trial.

The News Group also apologized and paid compensation to Harry’s co-accuser, Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labor Party, for what it described as “unwarranted intrusion” into his private life by The News of The World between 2009 and 2011, during his time in government. The company admitted that the tabloid “put it under surveillance” in 2009.

Mr Murdoch shut down The News of the World in 2011 after it emerged the paper had illegally hacked voicemails murdered schoolgirl. However, until now the company has never admitted wrongdoing by anyone at The Sun. News Group points out that the admission of illegal behavior refers to private investigators hired by the newspaper from 1996 to 2011, and not to its journalists.

Still, the admission is significant because Rebekah Brooks, the current chief executive of News UK, was editor of The Sun from 2003 to 2009 and described it at a parliamentary hearing into phone hacking as “very clean ship.” Ms Brooks denied any wrongdoing and was cleared of criminal charges in the 2014 hacking case.

“For the first time in this long-running litigation, and despite repeated previous denials, Murdoch’s flagship title, The Sun, has had to make an unprecedented admission,” said Daniel Taylor, a media lawyer who has represented plaintiffs in other hacking cases. “He hired private investigators to carry out illegal activities related to Prince Harry.”

The statement did not directly refer to Will Lewisa former senior executive at News UK who helped Mr Murdoch deal with the fallout from the scandal is now publisher of the Washington Post. But one passage raised questions about his role.

In 2011, when police were investigating allegations of illegal activity at News UK, they confronted executives about why certain emails had been abruptly removed from its servers. Mr Lewis told the police that the company removed them after receiving an unsubstantiated tip that Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, was conspiring with allies, including Mr Watson, to steal Ms Brooks’ emails.

The News Group admitted that there was no basis for the claim. “In 2011 News International has received information that information is being secretly passed to Lord Watson of News International. We now understand that this information was false and that Lord Watson did not receive such confidential information,” it said.

Mr Watson said in an interview last year that the claim was “deliberately concocted by News International in an attempt to justify the destruction and concealment of millions of relevant emails during a criminal investigation”.

A spokesman for Mr Lewis quoted a statement he gave to The Times last June, in which he said: “Any allegations of wrongdoing are untrue.”

Speaking in front of the courthouse after the announcement of the settlement, Mr. Watson said he would hand over to the police a file containing evidence of the offence. “I once said that the big beasts of the tabloid jungle have no predators,” he said. “I was wrong. They have Prince Harry. His bravery and admirable bravery held accountable a section of the media who thought he was untouchable.”

Whether the police will act remains to be seen. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “There are no active police inquiries into allegations of phone hacking or related matters. We await any correspondence from the parties involved, which we will respond to in due course.”

However, the settlement means Harry will not testify about his treatment at the hands of Mr Murdoch’s tabloids – something he did to dramatic effect in 2023, in a similar case against Mirror Group Newspapers, which he won. Nor will his lawyers present what they claim is widespread and deep-seated misconduct at Mr. Murdoch’s tabloids.

In addition to the interception of voicemails and the purging of emails, Harry’s lawyers planned to allege that senior News Group editors encouraged reporters to impersonate themselves to gain access to intimate details about Harry, a practice known as “blaming.”

For Harry, solving the case could remove a source of friction between him and his father and brother. He told ITV News last year that disagreements over how to deal with the tabloids had deepened the rift with his family, which was also rooted in the family’s treatment of his wife Meghan.

Harry has slammed Charles and William for a “secrecy agreement”, under which the family agreed to delay or settle legal claims against publishers to avoid testifying about potentially embarrassing details from their intercepted voicemail messages. Although Harry had pressed charges, he had now agreed to a similar consent.

In a summary of their planned spat, Harry’s lawyers cited a text message he wrote to William in 2019, in which he said he was “sick of being constantly blocked by my dad’s office, and I recently learned the extent of their behavior and subsequent cover-ups that should be exposed.”

Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, where William has offices, declined to comment on the settlement. Harry’s spokesman said he would not comment beyond a statement read by his lawyer, David Sherborne.

Joe Becker contributed reporting from Los Angeles



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