Prince Harry’s bid to sue The Sun over phone hacking thrown out by High Court judge

[MamoruHisaishi]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/prince-harry-the-sub-phone-hacking-high-court-judge-b1097090.html

I thought the Secret Agreement was going to be something like: PW gave The Sun PH’s passcode to hack his phone.

Suppose it just didn’t dawn on PH yet.

How many lawsuits has Harry got on atm?

Same. Despicable rag.

There will still be a trial in January looking into the unlawful information gathering angle which is a bigger issue than Harry's personal case.

I didn’t think he would be successful in regards to the phone hacking claims so this unfortunately isn’t a surprise. But it’s encouraging to see they will still be trying the other illegal activity.

Which part of the case did the flight details being exposed belong to (ie phone hacking/private investigator etc)? I thought that seemed like quite a convincing argument and it even seemed to throw/worry the defence a little when they were cross examining him.

I’m not a fan of phone hacking in the slightest. Or the Sun. However I also don’t think that people in privileged positions should feel like (and be treated as if) they are above the law which Prince Harry was trying to do here. The laws on limitation exist for good reason and should be applied even-handedly, not bent or ignored because a Prince wants to use the judicial process as part of a vendetta (something else I also take a very dim view of)

A reminder of what Harry actually said:

Explaining the 2012 “agreement”, the Duke of Sussex said: “My brother and I were also told by either the institution’s solicitor, Gerrard Tyrrell of Harbottle & Lewis, or someone else from the institution that there was no possibility of either of us bringing a claim against NGN for phone hacking at that time. The rationale behind this was that a secret agreement had been reached between the institution and senior executives at NGN whereby members of the Royal Family would bring phone hacking claims only at the conclusion of the Mobile Telephone Voicemail Interception Litigation (MTVIL) [a so-far 12-year series of phone hacking lawsuits that has cost NGN more than estimated £1.5bn] and at that stage the claims would be admitted or settled with an apology.”

The Duke’s lawyers added: “In 2017, [Prince Harry] and the Institution began to push for the outstanding claim to be resolved. However, News filibustered in relation to this until, in 2019, [Harry] had enough and issued his claim.

The “secret agreement”was intended to explain why Harry was trying to bring his claim so late, several years after he first learned about the phone hacking. He was trying to argue he couldn’t bring his claim in time because his hands were tied by this “secret agreement”

Harrys argument sounded quite far fetched (I said this at the time too!) and yes, the judge has now said it’s not credible i.e. he doesn’t believe Harry’s account.

Just a reminder that Harry also merrily revealed to the world in this court action a confidential settlement agreement that Prince William entered into in 2020 in relation to phone hacking (something Harry could have done too if he’d actually taken some action earlier) - an agreement Harry would not have been a party to, and in respect of which he would have not have had permission to reveal. And which has led to William being attacked left right and centre on the mistaken basis that he was being corruptly paid off by Murdoch. Nice invasion of William’s privacy there, Harry. What are you complaining about, again?

Basic question is this the case that’s going on where he testified or a different one?

Which part of the case did the flight details being exposed belong to (ie phone hacking/private investigator etc)? I thought that seemed like quite a convincing argument and it even seemed to throw/worry the defence a little when they were cross examining him.

Harry recently gave evidence in court in relation to a different claim against a different newspaper (the Mirror). This case is against the Sun, and they were determining a preliminary issue - whether Prince Harry was out of time to bring his claim Answer: yes on hacking claims, no on other illegal evidence gathering. This will now proceed to trial, but for Harry on the other illegal evidence points only.

Oh, and just one more point - the outcome today is something that each side can (and will!) justifiably trumpet as a victory.

The Sun were aiming to get all of Harry’s claims struck out - they only succeeded on the phone hacking ones, but they’ve got rid of the biggest one.

Harry can still proceed against the Sun for their other illegal evidence gathering activities (which I think it is perfectly clear happened, so he can expect to win on those).

Such is litigation!

Thanks for the update

Oh, and another point that was of interest to me.

There has been a bit of discussion about the fact that in Harry’s trial against the Mirror, the newspaper did not call Piers Morgan or other Mirror staff to give evidence, and posters suggested this could count against the newspaper. Justice Fancourt in today’s judgement set out the approach you (one) would normally expect to see in response to these arguments - it will be interesting to see if the same approach is taken in the case against the Mirror

Mr Sherborne was very critical of NGN for failing to provide witness statements of Ms Brooks and Mr Thomson …. it is for the Duke to make the running on advancing a plausible case, not for NGN to disprove a draft pleading, and the Duke has not provided any evidence from those in the Palace who would have been aware of a secret agreement if there was one, in particular Sir Christopher Geidt, Sally Osman and Gerrard Tyrrell. It is therefore not persuasive for Mr Sherborne to say that the court is left without material evidence because NGN has not provided evidence from two executives….

Thanks Serenster, you always offer clear and concise explanations.

Yes thanks Serenster - clear and informative as always

Maybe they hacked Chelsey's phone and heard a message from the person who booked her tickets (say a travel agent) as I think this was before buying tickets online.

He's got more than one case against newspapers going on and the testifying was for the other case where they admitted that there was a PI invoice for £80 so they did "something"

Thank you Serenster 🥰

Exactly this.
Anyone who is happy the sun are getting away with this are just vile. The sun is abhorrent.

Harry made claims in his testimony that the RF were making secret deals and he tried to taint William with ‘secret settlement’ talks though most settlements are confidential.

I’m glad the judge was quite vocal in rejecting these claims.

I hope Harry wins in the case that goes forward.

You can dislike the Sun, and want them to get done for phone hacking, as well as not thinking Harry has a case in this instance. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

I'm glad his accusations about the RF have been thrown out, and that the rule of law - you must have evidence - applies to him as well as the rest of us. He can continue with the rest of his law suit, and if proven he will get damages.

His memory isn't consistent, which makes him a bad witness, and his own worst enemy.

I thought that was phone hacking?? In that he said he discussed it on voicemails?? Could be misremembering though.

What would we do without you @Serenster ?? Thank you .

Among the legalese that fries my brain here's another aspect ... why is there a separate hearing about alleged "illegal information gathering", when phone hacking is also illegal and has surely also been used to gather information?

To my amateur mind they'd have gone under the same umbrella, but clearly not ... anyone know why?

Harry mentioned the secret agreement and settlement to demonstrate an admittance of wrongdoing by the paper.

The problem about the secret agreement was that Harry would need to produce proof of it and the terms and conditions. The palace clearly works against him with the rags - as indicated by their allowing Jason to break confidentiality clause and go after Meghan to help the Fail. So they were never going to hand it to him, to give the judge or do any kind of affidavit of that effect nor send a witness to testify to it's existence. The crown only looks out for itself.

By showing the agreement, the 'confidential/sensitive information' that the palace wanted to bury would come out, as I suspect they were personal to the RF, rather than security issues (which can be blacked out and seen only by the judge and barristers).

Therefore without seeing it the judge cannot make any conclusion based on what he has not seen.

In many ways, I believe Harry's team would have expected this outcome.

If Harry's team had demanded a subpoena, all that information would have come out the same papers Harry is suing and would have filled their dailies with 'what Harry made to be revealed about William & possibly other members'. Totally taking away from the case publicity and the paper shenanigans. They already made a big deal about the hush money as it is.

As I said at the top of this post, they had to mention the payout, because it highlights that the papers were indeed spying on the RF members. I think that its why they did not pursue it any further, it was just to put in the judge's conscience that it took place. A bit like when a lawyer says something knowing very well there will be an objection and the judge will also object.

This was not a case about William, it's about the papers.

Also a strange take to say people who take others to court over wrong doing is 'vendetta'. That would apply to all cases then. You sue someone for not rendering the services/breaking contract/vandalise your property etc. All that's vendetta ?

Harry was not trying to go above the law, he has specific circumstances that he was trying to explain as to why he could not bring his case on time. He was under palace instructions and advisement at the time. Under the queen. His circumstances were different, it was not just work, but his whole life under the care of the institution in a way.

Just as if someone was under conservatorship etc., they would have to explain why they ran out of time and this would be taken into consideration.

I hate to be the one to break it up you, notanotheroneagain, but the judge has found that there was no agreement.

He also found that Harry’s suggestion it existed was completely inconsistent with everything else Harry had already said about his claim.

(If it had existed, Harry’s team could have sought it via an application for pre-action disclosure - not a subpoena, which is for people, not documents. But they didn’t. Why? Perhaps because they knew it didn’t exist… 🤣)