Prince Harry 'Happy' After Major Win In Phone Hacking Lawsuit Against U.K. Tabloids

The Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, achieved a partial victory in his phone-hacking lawsuit against the Mirror Group, securing $180,000 in damages. Accusing the tabloids of over 140 instances of unlawful information gathering, he became the first British royal in 130 years to testify in such a case.

According to reports, Justice Fancourt ruled the Mirror Group played a small part in his distress, awarding a "modest" sum. Despite this win, Harry was ordered to pay £48,000 to the Mail on Sunday for legal costs.

Harry recently secured a partial triumph in his legal confrontation with British tabloid publisher, the Mirror Group, as a court granted him $180,000 (£140,000) in damages for his phone-hacking case.

In his lawsuit, the Duke alleged that Mirror Group tabloids hacked his phone and engaged in illicit activities to unearth private details for news stories, asserting over 140 instances of unlawful information gathering against him.

In the seven-week trial against the Mirror Group, Prince Harry became the first British royal in 130 years to take the witness stand. He accused the tabloids of unlawfully obtaining information for news stories published between 1995 and 2011. The trial examined 33 stories, determining that 15 of them resulted from phone hacking or other illicit information-gathering methods.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Justice Timothy Fancourt, who presided over Harry's case at Britain's High Court, awarded the royal a "modest" sum of $180,000 in damages slightly exceeding half of the £320,000 he sought.

The judge noted that the Mirror Group "only played a small part in everything that the Duke suffered" and "was not responsible for all the unlawful activity that was directed at the Duke and that a good deal of the oppressive behavior of the Press towards the Duke over the years was not unlawful at all."

Fancourt emphasized that phone hacking was only one aspect, adding: "I consider that his phone was only hacked to a modest extent and that this was probably carefully controlled by certain people at each newspaper."

He continued: "There was a tendency for the Duke in his evidence to assume that everything published was the product of voicemail interception because phone hacking was rife within Mirror Group at the time. But phone hacking was not the only journalistic tool at the time, and his claims in relation to the other 18 articles did not stand up to careful analysis."

The judge concluded that the damages aim "to compensate the Duke fully for the distress that he suffered as a result of the unlawful activity directed at him and those close to him."

In his statement after the ruling, the Duke of Sussex said he was "happy to have won this case."

"I respectfully call on the authorities, financial regulator, police to do their duty and investigate bringing charges against Daily Mirror Group," he added.

The victory against the Mirror Group comes just days following a court's decision that Prince Harry must pay the Mail on Sunday over £48,000 ($61,000) in legal costs after an unsuccessful attempt to dismiss part of the paper's defense in a libel case.

The seven-week trial shed light on questionable practices within British tabloids, implicating former Mirror editor Piers Morgan in widespread phone hacking.

Prince Harry has additional lawsuits pending, including those against Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers and Associated Newspapers for alleged unlawful information gathering, which involves singer Elton John among seven high-profile accusers.

In his series of legal battles against U.K. tabloid newspapers, Harry has a pending lawsuit against News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of the Sun and the now-defunct News of the World.

In its defense, NGN attempted to dismiss the case, arguing it should have been filed earlier, but Harry claimed he refrained due to a "secret agreement" between the royal family and NGN. In July, The High Court ruled against suing NGN for alleged phone hacking, but the rest of Harry's case proceeds, with a trial expected in early 2025.

The Duke of Sussex's latest legal victory comes amid a row with his family following the release of author Omid Scobie's memoir, "Endgame." The memoir has further strained Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle's relationship with the Royal Family due to scathing claims made in the book by Scobie.