Prince Harry was awarded 140,600 pounds, or about $240,430 Cdn, after London’s High Court ruled on Friday he had been a victim of “modest” phone-hacking and other unlawful information gathering by journalists at Britain’s Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN).
The prince — who became the first senior royal to appear as a witness in court in 130 years at the trial in June — had sued MGN, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People.
Harry said he was targeted by MGN for 15 years from 1996 and that more than 140 stories which appeared in its papers were the result of unlawful information gathering, though the trial only considered 33 of these.
Of those, the judge found unlawful actions had contributed to 15 articles during a period when he concluded that there had been extensive phone-hacking and widespread unlawful actions at the newspapers, of which some executives and in-house lawyers were aware.
The prince had sought damages of 440,000 pounds ($753,000 Cdn).
In a statement outside court on Friday, Harry’s barrister David Sherborne read a statement in which the prince expressed gratitude and vindication for the judgment and said he hoped for a “free and honest press” that is accountable and free from what he described as “vendetta journalism.”
The publisher of the Daily Mirror acknowledged and apologized for unlawfully gathering information about Prince Harry in court filings in the case, but denied phone hacking allegations.
Harry has also sued the publishers of the Daily Mail and The Sun in similar cases.
