Prince Harry and Others Lose Phone-Hacking Lawsuit Against Mail Publisher
The Duke of Sussex and six other prominent individuals have lost their legal case against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), the publisher of the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, and MailOnline, over allegations that the publisher sourced stories using unlawful methods over a period of two decades.
In a ruling that may mark the conclusion of new litigation related to the phone-hacking scandal, the High Court dismissed all claims, stating that the claimants had not demonstrated that information was obtained unlawfully.
The written judgment by Mr Justice Nicklin stated that the court could not simply infer that a story was obtained unlawfully if there existed a legitimate and realistic legal means by which the information could have been sourced.
Prince Harry was among a group of seven high-profile claimants who initiated a multimillion-pound lawsuit against ANL. The group accused the publisher of "clear, systematic and sustained use of unlawful information gathering" over several years. The claims named dozens of journalists and private investigators.
The legal team representing the Daily Mail described the allegations as "lurid" and "preposterous," asserting that in each case, stories were sourced legitimately from press officers, previous articles, or the "leaky" social circles of celebrities.
Other claimants included Doreen Lawrence, mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence; musician Elton John and his husband David Furnish; actors Jude Law and Sadie Frost; and former Liberal Democrat minister Simon Hughes.
The claimants presented the court with 55 articles published between 1997 and 2015, along with three incidents that did not result in articles, which they argued demonstrated unlawful information gathering.
The claimants’ legal team made a series of extraordinary allegations of illegality at the Mail, describing the wrongdoing as "habitual and widespread." These included claims of phone hacking, landline tapping, bugging via private investigators, and corrupt payments to police.
All of these claims were dismissed by the court.
The outcome potentially leaves the claimants facing a substantial legal bill, estimated to be as high as £50 million.
Numerous editors and journalists from the publisher, including the formidable former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, gave evidence denying any illegal activity.
Prince Harry was the first claimant to give evidence during the 11-week trial. He testified that the Mail’s titles had made his wife’s life difficult.
"The Mail’s titles had made my wife’s life difficult."
