Daily Mirror admits to 'unlawful information gathering' on Prince Harry
Tabloid's owner apologizes, but denies phone hacking in first of prince's 3 British press trials
The publisher of British tabloid the Daily Mirror has acknowledged and apologized for unlawfully gathering information about Prince Harry in its reporting, and said it warrants compensation, as the prince's first phone hacking trial began Wednesday.
The admission was made in court filings outlining Mirror Group Newspapers' defence.
The group continued to deny that it hacked phones to intercept voicemail messages, and said that Harry brought the claims beyond a six-year time limit. But it acknowledged there was "some evidence of the instruction of third parties to engage in other types of UIG [unlawful information gathering]."
It said this "warrants compensation," but didn't spell out what form that might take.
"MGN unreservedly apologizes for all such instances of UIG, and assures the claimants that such conduct will never be repeated," the court papers said.
The publisher said its apology was not a tactical move to reduce damages, but was done "because such conduct should never have occurred."
Harry's co-claimants in the Mirror trial are Nikki Sanderson and Michael Turner, best known for their roles on Coronation Street, and Fiona Wightman, the former wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse.
The lawsuits were combined as a test case that could determine the outcome of hacking claims also made against Mirror Group by former Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy, the estate of the late singer George Michael and soccer commentator Ian Wright.
Harry expected to testify
Harry has alleged that reporters at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People used illegal methods to gather material from his family and friends for nearly 150 articles. The newspaper has said he is wrong about how its reporters got information, saying they used legal methods for many articles.
The activities in question stretch back more than two decades, when journalists and private eyes intercepted voicemails to snoop on members of the Royal Family, politicians, athletes, celebrities and even crime victims.
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Harry is expected to testify in person in June, his lawyer has said. It won't be his first time in the High Court, following his surprise appearance last month to observe most of a four-day hearing in one of his other lawsuits.
Harry was not present in court as his lawyer, David Sherborne, began his opening statement, saying that unlawful acts were "widespread and habitual" and done on "an industrial scale" by reporters and editors at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.
"It was a flood of illegality," Sherborne said. "But worse, this flood was being approved by senior executives, managing editors and members of the board."
Invoices and phone records — some so old they came from obsolete Palm Pilots — showed how the news, entertainment, sports and photo departments relied on investigators plying unscrupulous tactics.
Sherborne said former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan was aware of the hacking and even participated. Morgan has publicly denied involvement in phone hacking.
The prince has waged a war of words against British newspapers in legal claims and in his best-selling memoir Spare, vowing to make his life's mission reforming the media that he blames for the death of his mother, Princess Diana. She died in a car wreck in Paris in 1997 while paparazzi were following in vehicles.
Harry has also sued the publishers of the Daily Mail and The Sun over the phone hacking scandal that metastasized after a year-long inquiry into press ethics in 2011 revealed that employees of the now-defunct, Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid eavesdropped on mobile phone voicemails. Several Murdoch empire executives and employees were subject to criminal inquiry as a result, and his News Corp. paid hundreds of millions of pounds in damages to victims.
Alludes to royal deal with press barons
Harry has outlined his grievances against the media in court papers, saying the press hounded him since his earliest days and created a narrative that portrayed him as "the 'thicko,' the 'cheat,' the 'underage drinker.'" His relationships with girlfriends were wrecked by "the entire tabloid press as a third party," he alleged.
Harry's lawsuits could further roil family relations that have been strained since Harry and his wife, Meghan, left royal life in 2020 and moved to the United States after complaining about racist attitudes from the British press.
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The prince's lawyer has argued that an exception should be applied to the six-year time limit to bring charges because publishers actively concealed the skullduggery.
Harry blamed his delay in bringing suit, in part, on his family. He asserted he was barred from bringing a case against The Sun and other newspapers owned by Murdoch because of a "secret agreement" — allegedly approved of by Queen Elizabeth — that called for reaching a private settlement and getting an apology.
"The reason for this was to avoid the situation where a member of the Royal Family would have to sit in the witness box and recount the specific details of the private and highly sensitive voicemails that had been intercepted," Harry said in a witness statement against Murdoch's News Group Newspapers.
"The institution was incredibly nervous about this and wanted to avoid at all costs the sort of reputational damage that it had suffered in 1993," he said, alluding to a transcript of a leaked recording — published in the Sunday Mirror — of an intimate conversation his father, then Prince of Wales, had with his paramour, now Queen Camilla, in which he compared himself to a tampon.
Harry said his brother, Prince William, had quietly settled his own hacking claims with News Group for a "huge sum of money" in 2020. He also claimed his father had directed palace staff to order him to drop his litigation because it was bad for the family.
Murdoch's company denied there was a "secret agreement" and wouldn't comment on the alleged settlement.
The palace hasn't responded to requests for comment.
