Prince Harry Asks Police For Help

Prince Harry's lawyer called for police to step in after the duke proved his phone was hacked by three British tabloid newspapers.

The Duke of Sussex, 39, was awarded £140,600 (around $178,000) in damages after a resounding victory against Mirror Group Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.

And David Sherborne, Harry's lawyer, used a statement outside the High Court in London, England, to turn up the heat on Piers Morgan, 58, former editor of the Daily Mirror.

Morgan is a regular critic of Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, 42, and the duke argued in a witness statement that his broadsides were revenge for the lawsuit, filed in September 2019.

"This case is not just about hacking," Sherborne told journalists, including Newsweek, who were gathered outside court. "It is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behavior, followed by cover-ups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings.

"The court has found that Mirror Group's principal board directors, their legal department, senior executives, and editors such as Piers Morgan, clearly knew about or were involved in these illegal activities."

Sherborne added: "I respectfully call upon the authorities—the financial regulator, the stock market who were deliberately deceived by Mirror Group, and indeed the Metropolitan Police and prosecuting authorities—to do their duty for the British public and investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law.

"Today's ruling is vindicating and affirming. l've been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today's victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press—it's a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues."

The judge accepted the evidence of witnesses who sought to drag Morgan into the phone hacking scandal. However, in the summary read out in court he stopped short of explicitly stating how much he felt Morgan personally knew.

David Seymour, a former political editor, told the court Morgan played him a tape recording of Paul McCartney singing a Beatles song in a voicemail message on Heather Mills' voicemail.

The judgment, by judge Timothy Fancourt, read: "Mr Seymour said that on one occasion in 1996 Mr Morgan showed him a video of a pack of paparazzi pursuing Princess Diana in the street and causing her distress by harassment, which belied a recently published article that suggested that the princess was distressed upon leaving the building of a therapist. He recalls Mr Morgan saying: 'If this gets out, we are finished.'"

Fancourt added: "Mr Seymour struck me as a man of intelligence and integrity. I accept his evidence without hesitation."

In an earlier witness statement, Harry said: "Unfortunately, as a consequence of me bringing my Mirror Group claim, both myself and my wife have been subjected to a barrage of horrific personal attacks and intimidation from Piers Morgan, who was the editor of the Daily Mirror between 1995 and 2004, presumably in retaliation and in the hope that I will back down, before being able to hold him properly accountable for his unlawful activity towards both me and my mother during his editorship."

Privacy lawyer Philippa Dempster, managing partner at the London Office of Freeths: "This is a landmark victory for the privacy rights of individuals and marks another clear line in the sand for press standards. It shows that the courts are willing to reach back into the past, sift through evidence and hold those who practised the so-called 'dark arts' of the press to account.

"Hundreds of people who had articles written about them in the nineties and noughties containing private information from questionable sources will now be emboldened to bring claims.

"As for Piers Morgan, he has always emphatically denied that, as editor of the Mirror, he knew of any phone hacking or illegal newsgathering activity at the paper. Today's finding is a bombshell that blows a hole in his confident assertions."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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