Prince Harry sets up Mirror Group hacking outfit, takes a swipe at Piers Morgan

Prince Harry has agreed to a 400,000 pound (about $505,000) settlement with a British tabloid publisher who was found guilty last year of improperly spying on his private life. BBC References.

The sum covers legal costs, as well as the initial £140,600 damages Harry was awarded when the judgment against Mirror Group Newspapers was handed down last December. In the ruling, a judge found that the Mirror Group's documents — including The mirror, The Sunday Mirrorand The Sunday People — had engaged in “illegal intelligence-gathering” tactics, such as hacking Harry's phone or tapping his voicemails.

Following the hearing on Friday, February 9, Harry's lawyer David Sherborne shared a statement on behalf of the royal. “Everything we said was happening at the Mirror group was actually happening, and much worse as the court ruled in its extremely damning judgment,” he said.

Harry also appeared to urge police to launch a criminal investigation The mirrorsaying, “We again call on the authorities to uphold the rule of law and prove that no one is above it.”

And Harry's statement called out the well-known British journalist/broadcaster and former Daily Mirror publisher Piers Morgan. Harry said that “as an editor”, Morgan “knew very well what was going on, as the judge found. Even his employer himself realized that he simply could not call him as a witness of the truth in the trial. His contempt for the court's decision and his continued attacks since then demonstrate why it was so important to make a clear and detailed judgment.”

A representative for Morgan did not immediately return a call Rolling rockhis request for comment.

In a statement of its own, the Mirror Group said it was “delighted to have reached this agreement, which gives our business further clarity to move forward on events which took place many years ago and for which we have apologised”.

Harry's case against the Mirror Group centered on around 33 articles published between 1995 and 2011, which his lawyers submitted as evidence that his phone had been hacked. Ultimately, the judge ruled that 15 of those articles, published between 2003 and 2009, “were the product of phone hacking” or other illegal tactics. He added that Harry's phone had probably been “moderately hacked and that was probably carefully monitored by certain people at each newspaper”.

Harry is involved in two other similar lawsuits: One against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers, which publishes The sunand the other against Associated Newspapers Limited, which publishes the Daily Mail (this suit also includes Elton John, David Furnish and Liz Hurley). Harry also sued Associated Newspapers for defamation over a February 2022 incident, but dropped the suit last month after an unfavorable preliminary ruling in December.