Extensive Phone Hacking by MGN

[Roussette]

So... Harry has won his case.

As lawyers are saying now... this is massive. 15 out of 33 accusations of hacking by Harry were upheld as a result of phone hacking and other illegal practices.
Hacking and blagging were even taking place during the Leveson enquiry.

He has won damages of £140,000 plus. And before this thread descends into Harry hate, please think of all the other claimants who have also had their claims upheld and damages awarded to them. They went through hell, medical records hacked and reported on, trackers on cars, phones hacked...

It's not about the money, it's about 'accountability of power'.

Thanks Rousette. For all the time and effort you are putting into this thread.

Watching Hugh 12 years ago and Harry 2 years ago - yep, nothing has changed. Until now.

Thanks cakester too for all your imput into this thread.

.

Yes, Mosley's been much in my mind this week for his excellent work supporting other victims.

The tabloids assumed they could do what they liked to ordinary folk, who could never afford to hold them to account.

Mosley's support went some way to levelling the playing field for them.

I found Endgame to have one very useful angle .
Everything is set out clearly , factually and in order
Meredith Constant on TikTok and insta does something similar . Lots of old fashioned spade work to cut out all the smoke and mirrors .
And in light of the way the MSM manipulates its easily led readers , this task alone makes Endgame worthwhile .
If the haters actually read it they’d see he does not hate the monarchy . He is offering much needed criticism.
It’s no ‘ and what do you do?’ but it has its place .

well done on taking my post and well.......making it into something else.
PW will be tied by protocol , he can't get involved in politics. so yep that is the excuse. thats not a bash on PW, just a fact.

Does the ‘protocol’ prevent Wiliam from leaking negatively about his brother ?

That’s ok according to protocol is it ? Because even the ‘royal’ rota are on video confirming that the many stories came from KP .

Wiliam’s silence looks like complicity .
And very weak.

This is what Lord Leveson said about Morgan back in 2012

Lord Justice Leveson has described former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan's assertion that he had no knowledge of alleged phone hacking as "utterly unpersuasive", and said the practice may well have occurred at the title in the late 1990s.
Morgan was asked during his evidence to the Leveson inquiry about an interview he gave Press Gazette in 2007 when he said that phone hacking was an "investigative practice that everyone knows was going on at almost every paper in Fleet Street for years".
"Overall, Mr Morgan's attempt to push back from his own bullish statement to the Press Gazette was utterly unpersuasive," said Leveson in his report on the culture, practices and ethics of the press, published on Thursday. "This was not, in any sense at all, a convincing answer."
Leveson was also critical of Morgan's attitude to phone hacking.
it does, however, clearly prove that he was aware that it was taking place in the press as a whole and that he was sufficiently unembarrassed by what was criminal behaviour that he was prepared to joke about it."

Breaking News...
A top judge has said anyone who lied to the phone hacking inquiry should be prosecuted for perjury after a court found there could be "no doubt" editors at Mirror Group Newspapers (MNG) knew about intercepted voicemails.

He also accused TV presenter and former Mirror editor Piers Morgan of ‘shameful reaction’ to court ruling

Sir Alan Moses, a former chair of press regulator the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), also hit out at the former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan, accusing him of epitomising the “shameful reaction of people who used to be editors”.
After an extraordinary High Court ruling on Friday, Hollywood actor Steve Coogan also called for a police investigation.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/prince-harry-piers-morgan-phone-hack-perjury-b2465201.html

@Samcro PW did sue exactly like PH, in fact it was a joint case. They split the legal action and chose equally valid but different legal routes.

Protocol and politics do not stop a member of the RF taking legal action and vice versa. Remember Princess Anne was convicted under the Dangerous Dogs Act.

Roger that! Thanks @Roussette and others, this is a highly informative thread, I've been reading and saving links!

Yes, this.

And to many other posters for their informative input too.

This is great, thanks for sharing:

Sir Alan, a former lord justice of appeal, warned: “The whole system has never held to account those in charge, the proprietors and the editors [… because they] poured money into settlement and only people like Prince Harry had the resources to pursue the case.”

Seeing the thread titles that are "Active" in this area, makes it appear like hacks for certain newspapers are on MN to bury threads like this.

Anyway Steve Coogan, who is involved with Hacked Off, gave an interview to Radio 4's Today Programme -

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/dec/16/steve-coogan-phone-hacking-ruling-reveals-systemic-concealment

"Steve Coogan has said the Duke of Sussex’s partial victory in a high court phone-hacking claim shows there is an “omertà … of systemic concealment by the press” and has called for a bolstered system of independent regulation."

Here's the Steve Coogan article:

A High Court ruling that Prince Harry's phone had been hacked by Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) is the "start of something", actor Steve Coogan said.
Coogan said the ruling exposed "widespread contempt" by newspaper editors for the Leveson Inquiry, which looked at the ethics of the press.
He said the press needed to be held accountable with "proper, independent regulation".
Coogan was a victim of phone hacking by MGN and settled with the group in 2017.

"The police need to apply the law evenly and fairly, without fear or favour. It doesn't matter how much time has passed."

Totally agree!

Also from the article and a reminder:

The Leveson Inquiry was established under then-Prime Minister David Cameron following the phone-hacking scandal at News International. The second stage was meant to look into the relationship between journalists and the police.
The inquiry found politicians and the press had been too close, and that a new self-regulated body independent of serving editors, government and business should be established.
It concluded that a legal framework was needed to underpin the body. The industry rejected this, arguing the move would give politicians too much power.
The current regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso), was set up in 2014 as successor to the Press Complaints Commission, which was criticised for its lack of action in the phone-hacking scandal.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67736528

Snap @Reugny

Don't think this has been shared.

Hidden in today’s voluminous High Court judgment of the case of Prince Harry against Mirror Group Newspapers is a finding which breaks open what Gordon Brown called the “criminal media nexus” of corrupt cops, tabloid journalists and private investigators and the “dark arts” that came to dominate the British press.
The evidence of one important witness, Derek Haslam, will be key to cases against the Murdoch and Mail newspapers due for trial next year.

There's a whole bunch of context next and then:

Today’s judgment, among other things, vindicates this suppressed evidence. Justice Fancourt accepted Haslam’s evidence in broad terms and called his testimony “clear and compelling”. But this is only the beginning of the story because Haslam’s evidence is also a key testimony in more trials due next year brought by several claimants including Prince Harry, Elton John and Hugh Grant over unlawful information gathering against the Mail group and Murdoch’s publications.
And this opens up the whole issue of police and press corruption around the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Daniel Morgan.

https://bylinetimes.com/2023/12/15/getting-away-with-murder-what-harrys-win-against-the-mirror-means-for-murdoch-and-the-mail/

That article @Cakester is gobsmacking. And actually quite scary. How deep does the corruption go?

And this is why high profile Harry taking this on is so important.

Good catch!

Debate usually contains argument rather than opinion.

Robust debate has strong argument which is interesting, informative, fun and a great way to learn.

Robust opinions are less interesting to engage with for obvious reasons.

You're prob right. The lawyers would have known ahead of it being made public.

He is a very flawed, odious individual. Obsessed beyond any sort of logical comprehension with MM. Like many on some of these threads.

But the evil extends beyond. What he did to Milly Dowler's family- I just can't get over

I just read George Galloway's tweet

'Piers Morgan was hacking my telephone whilst pretending to be a friend of mine. That's the sort of man he is.'

Well something was up because MGN made a settlement offer a few months ago, after the trial but before judgement. I guess with time to properly go through things and the evidence, everyone could see the writing on the wall?

Enquiries cost so much money, take so much time, and are very vunerable to political interference.

With that in mind - do we really need another one?

An overhaul on the press and what we the public can expect from the it might be better.

Rules and regulations that have some heft.

We have a right and expectation of decent information. Without it we are manipulated.

Get a good cross section of some smart people in a room and I bet something good would come out it.

@Roussette in the last few years and of course as far back as the awful Stephen Lawrence case, there has been every indication something rotten is at the heart of the met police.

Piers Morgan is a clear textbook narcissist with probable NPD. People like that are shameless self promoters so tend to get ahead in showbiz. It's a dangerous condition.

Here is a list of all those implicated in the Ruling by Mr Justice Fancourt

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/dec/15/which-mirror-bosses-knew-about-phone-hacking-according-to-prince-harry-ruling

No PM will enact it ever. Establishment won't allow it. Keir will win because he's an Establishment man.