Rupert Murdoch‘s News Group Newspapers (NGN) has made a shock apology to Prince Harry and the pair have settled in court.
In the past few minutes, the BBC reported NGN apologizing for phone hacking, and the impact this had on Harry as well as the impact of the “extensive coverage and serious intrusion on his private life,” including the coverage of his late mother, Princess Diana.
Financial terms of the settlement are not yet known. BBC News reported that legal fees are estimated to be £10M for both sides in total, and NGN is expected to pay Harry’s legal fees.
The NGN apology was “full and unequivocal” and for the first time included an admission of criminal activity by The Sun.
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“NGN offers an 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,” it read. “NGN also offers a full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World. NGN further apologises to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years.”
NGN went on to apologize to Lord Watson, the former deputy Labour Party leader who had also taken the group to court.
“Monumental victory”
A statement from Prince Harry called the settlement a “monumental victory” and the apology a “historic admission” of guilt. He said NGN had unlawfully engaged more than 100 private investigators on 35,000 occasions over 16 years.
His lawyer David Sherborne read: “Far from being relics of a distant past, many of those behind these unlawful practices remain firmly entrenched in senior positions today, both within News UK and other media outlets across the world, wielding editorial power and perpetuating the toxic culture in which they continue to thrive. What’s even worse is that in the wake of the 2006 arrest of a royal correspondent, there was an extensive conspiracy to cover up what really had been going on and who knew about it.”
The judge, press and court were all set for a weeks-long trial but in a bizarre move yesterday the entire morning’s session was delayed as both sets of lawyers negotiated what onlookers quickly realized could be a last minute settlement. After one final adjournment was awarded by the judge, the lawyers said they would take leave to appeal the decision to not allow any more delays in what was an unprecedented situation, allowing them to spend the rest of the day on the settlement. NGN’s lawyer Anthony Hudson at that point was quoted by the BBC as saying: “We are very close.”
The court was told back in November that 39 cases had been settled since a hearing last July, with only Prince Harry and Watson left. The Prince was expected to fly over to give evidence next month. He had previously indicated a refusal to settle, citing “accountability.” But, by a strange quirk of the British legal system, if a claimant turns down an offer of settlement and is later awarded less in damages by a judge, they have to pay the legal costs of both sides, which could have led to huge costs for Harry even if he were to win in court.
The case, which had been rumbling for years, had seen the California-based Duke of Sussex sue The Sun and now-defunct News of the World owner for alleged unlawful information gathering by journalists and their contractors. NGN apologized for unlawful practices against others at the News of the World many years ago, but denies similar claims against The Sun and allegations of a wider cover-up. The High Court ruled almost a year ago that Harry’s lawsuit would not include media tycoon Murdoch or ex-News of the World editor Piers Morgan, who were dubbed “trophy targets” by the judge. Furthermore, Harry was not able to bring claims that he was the victim of bugging and tracking devices.
Harry does have one more high-profile privacy trial to come, which is expected next year. That trial against the Daily Mail‘s publisher has been instigated with the likes of Elton John and Liz Hurley and was given the go-ahead late last year. The Mail’s publisher has described the allegations as “preposterous smears.”
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