‘Great day for truth’: Prince Harry wins hacking case

Judge rules there was ‘extensive’ hacking by Mirror and awards royal £140,000 in damages

- Alexandra Topping

Prince Harry hailed a “great day for truth” yesterday after winning substantial damages in his hacking case against the Daily Mirror, in a judgment that will have profound implications for the British media.

A judge ruled yesterday that there was “extensive” phone hacking by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) from 2006 to 2011, “even to some extent” during the Leveson inquiry into media standards. Mr Justice Fancourt found that unlawful information-gathering was “widespread” at all three Mirror Group titles, while the use of private investigators was an “integral part of the system”.

Recognizing the “distress” caused to Harry, the judge awarded him £140,600 in damages in a dramatic day at the high court.

Fancourt ruled there could be “no doubt” that Piers Morgan, the Mirror’s editor between 1995 and 2004, and other senior executives knew about the practice.

Reading a statement outside his home, Morgan furiously denied he was aware of phone hacking during his time as editor. In an extraordinary personal attack , the TalkTV presenter said the Duke of Sussex “wouldn’t know truth if it slapped him in his California-tanned face”, and claimed Harry and his wife, Meghan, were trying to “destroy the British monarchy”.

Morgan said he had not been asked to provide a statement to the court and was unable “to respond to the many false allegations that were spewed about me in court by old foes”. He said he had “never hacked a phone” while editor or told anyone else to, adding: “Nobody has provided any actual evidence to prove that I did.”