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Prince Harry’s Case Against Rupert Murdoch’s UK News Group Looks Likely to Go to Trial

The Prince is suing the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World alleging it unlawfully obtained private information about him from 1996 until 2011

Prince Harry arrives at the High Court in London in June 2023. Photo: Frank Augstein/AP/Alamy

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Prince Harry’s legal case against Rupert Murdoch’s UK company looks likely to go to trial in two months’ time following a court hearing in London on Friday.

If there is no last-minute change, it will be the first time the newspaper group – News Group Newspapers (NGN) – has ever been forced to defend its record in court in 15 years of litigation about phone hacking and other unlawful reporting methods.

Prince Harry is suing the publisher of The Sun and the now-defunct News of the World alleging NGN unlawfully obtained private information about him from 1996 until 2011.

Rupert Murdoch in London in June 2023
Rupert Murdoch at his annual party at Spencer House, St James’ Place London, June 2023

Counsel for the Prince, David Sherborne, said that in the past week NGN had reached out-of-court settlements with 12 people who had brought claims – as has happened in hundreds of previous cases – but that “two claims are going to trial”. 

Those two are brought by the Prince and Lord Tom Watson, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, who says he was subject to a politically-motivated campaign of phone hacking and other abuses. 

Sherborne reminded the judge, Mr Justice Timothy Fancourt, that on 13 previous occasions since 2011 planned trials involving the Murdoch company had failed to go ahead because claimants have been, as he put it, “bought off”.

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The Prince and Lord Watson have not settled and Friday’s hearing was devoted to preparations for a six-week trial scheduled to begin around 15 January. The only previous trials relating to phone hacking have related to the Mirror newspapers and both went badly for the publisher.  

Given the past history, and despite Sherborne’s assertion, a settlement in the Murdoch case even at this late stage can’t be ruled out. What is clear is that News Group has poured money into its effort to escape a trial – the total number of recent settlements is said by informed sources to be around 40 – but that the Prince and Watson have held out. 

In practice, a rich company holds the best cards in these matters. Claimants keen to have their day in court can be forced to settle if the offer exceeds what they could win at trial. News Group is thought to have paid out more than £1 billion over the years in such settlements, with costs. 

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The Prince has said he is determined to hold the company to account, and the complexity and scope of his case, which relates to hundreds of news stories over a lengthy period, may have made it harder for News Group to oblige him to settle. 


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