Prince Harry Wins Hacking Case Against UK Newspaper

ABC News reports:

A U.K. judge on Friday issued a ruling in Prince Harry’s lawsuit against Mirror Group Newspapers, the publisher of The Daily Mirror, saying the Duke of Sussex’s phone was probably hacked “to a modest extent” by Mirror Group Newspapers.

The Duke of Sussex has been awarded £140,600 ($179, 658) after bringing a High Court phone hacking claim against Mirror Group Newspapers. The judge said there was “extensive” phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers from 2006 to 2011, “even to some extent” during the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.

Harry, who now lives in the United States after stepping away from his royal duties three years ago, joined 100 other celebrities, including the estate of the late George Michael, in suing Mirror Group Newspapers for alleged misuse of private information between 1991 and 2011, including alleged phone hacking and intercepting voicemails.

The BBC reports:

Piers Morgan knew about phone hacking – and was involved – when he was editor of the Daily Mirror, the High Court has ruled. In a highly significant part of the judgment, Mr Justice Fancourt lists times when Morgan was said to have been aware of phone hacking – and the evidence had not been contested. He also said that he found evidence about Morgan’s involvement to be credible and it had not been countered by the Mirror Group.

During a key part of the case, the now royal author Omid Scobie recalled an incident he had witnessed when he was a student intern at the newspaper group, working on its “3am Girls” entertainment desk. He told the court that in 2002 he had witnessed Morgan discuss an article about Kylie Minogue and Morgan, the then editor, had asked the journalist how confident they were about the story. Morgan was told, Scobie recalled, that the source had been a voicemail.