Harry v. NGN

[Atlasvue]

Starting a thread for Tuesday.
This BBC article covers the basics. This is the last line ….
’Tuesday really is the beginning of the end. And someone is going to lose - and lose big.’

I have a feeling, that Harry won’t win but he just wants to use the public setting to air his grievances. A therapy session would have worked out much cheaper.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2l00xkgwnyo

I’m only interested in the case because I’ve got hot pants for Sherbourne. We don’t make men like that down here 🥰

Yes of course I do I’m a retired solicitor. I’ve been perfectly polite on this thread when engaging with people so please extend me the same courtesy.

Frankly that’s something Harry should have thought of. I don’t blame him for settling. It would have been my advice from the start. He should (EDIT:)not
have made such a song and dance about it though.

Yes Harry released texts in Spare that shows the news story about Meghan was a lie.

This is close to breathless tabloid writing, I’d probably sub it to read “The EXILED ROYAL folded and pocketed CASH from Murdoch’s pocket to KEEP SCHTUM” for house style but the angle is bang-on.

Yes, but they admitted that right back at the time TNOW closed because of the illegal activities.

This is not new - it's well over a decade old.

And is not The Sun scalp H said he was after.

Harry hasn't bought about any change or accountability with this case. Change happened many years ago and Prince William was a part of that. Nothing that Harry has done will change how the media operate in the future, no dragons were slayed, maimed or in any way injured.

He cut and run (as is his right and actually in light of his current situation in the US and things not looking financially rosy, I can't blame him). Let's not try make it out to be anything other than money now. It's not brave or courageous, it's simply what he should have done many, many months ago. He didn't need to go all Game of Thrones about it.

Can you explain how phone hacking would have been discovered but for William's complaint to the police in 2005. Please confirm how and by whom phone hacking would have ended.

Noooo he reminds me of David Dickinson without the tan

This is a very fair point.

The legal circus might have left town but thankfully for us gawpers it's left its clowns behind.

Onwards and upwards, Harolds 🍿

That was the first phone hacking case and it was prosecuted. But it was treated as an isolated incidence and there was no further investigations.
Further phone hacking such as 7/7 victims and Millie Dowler showed that it was not an isolated incident, and the extensive public outrage led to the government announcing a public enquiry in Parliament.

Ha! Sorry but this made me laugh out loud
given that this entire board is rammed full of speculation like none other!

No Dragons Harmed in this Production of the Massive Cheque.

And just how has he "held them to account"???!

They are off the hook, again!!

'How To Train Your Dragon' 🐲

That's not what I asked. I am talking about the existence of the thing called phone hacking. The discovery of this phenomenon that set the wheels in motion for subsequent actions and enquiries. Who are the other parties who would have worked this out and how if William had not complained to the police?

He settled. That is not winning. The clue is in the verb!

He should have known that long before today!

It is untrue to say there were no further investigations, and this has been explained to you several times. Both the Met Police and the Guardian newspaper investigated in the first instance after Goodman's conviction. Off the back of that, a number of celebrities brought civil claims against the NOTW, including Sienna Miller. Her 2011 settlement prompted the Met to re-open their enquiries, and that led to the discovery of the Milly Dowler phone hack (10 years after the event). That led to the Leveson Enquiry.

Once again, please explain how the phenomenon known as phone hacking would have been discovered but for William's police complaint.

On the point about how this would have been uncovered, the fact that it was actually key that it was William making a complaint directly to Scotland Yard, and that this had security implications, is fascinatingly clear. Anyone else going to the police with suspicions would doubtless have been told it wasn’t possible. Because even the phone companies thought it wasn’t possible. It needed someone of William’s standing and significance to be complaining for the police to actually put the effort in to figure out the truth.

The first step taken by DCS Williams was to establish whether or not a third party had been accessing the voicemail messages of Mr Lowther-Pinkerton and Ms Asprey without their permission.

At that stage Vodafone and O2, the respective service providers, maintained
that they had not appreciated that it was possible to listen to another person’s voicemail messages without their knowledge or permission. Indeed at that time none of the service providers admitted to being aware of this capability.

The evidence of DCS Williams was that it was only due to the tenacity of DI Kevin Southworth (now Detective Superintendent Southworth) who worked with Vodafone and their engineers that the police discovered how mobile phone voicemail systems worked. It was the case, apparently, that the service providers had limited ability to establish precisely what was happening within any given voicemail system. They could not, for instance, determine
whether a voicemail message (whether new or old) existed within a voicemail box at any particular time.

Although it was possible to identify outside or potential “rogue” numbers
dialling into a person’s voicemail box, the available software could not identify whether or not the “rogue” number had listened to any messages.They also could not assist with how often the illegal access was taking place or how widespread it was.

By 30 January 2006, with the assistance of Vodafone’s engineers, the police had established that a number of outside or potential “rogue” numbers had been calling in to Mr Lowther-Pinkerton’s voicemail box, using his unique voicemail access number.One of those “rogue” numbers was traced to Mr Goodman’s home address

That is not true. I posted a link to an article that explained it.
After the Palace exposure, the Met decided to treat the phone hacking as a one off incident and not investigate further.
But later other cases came to light, some very shocking.
An illegal act can be treated as a one off incident with no further investigations. Then more cases later come to light. It was these other cases that led to the public enquiry.
If you scroll back you will see my link to an article that explains all of this.

What did he win? Tiddlywinks?

And Sienna Miller was the celebrity who pushed really hard for the Met to investigate properly.

Investigate what? The phenomenon that became known as phone hacking, that's what. And how and why was that phenomenon discovered? I'll ask you one more time, because I am getting bored. Here's a clue, @Serenster has answered for you a few post above. So, if it hadn't been for William, who, why what, where and how would the phenomenon known as phone hacking have been discovered?

ridiculous comment. No one knows how litigation is going to pan out once on Court

And I have answered multiple times!!
The first phone hacking case involved the Palace. A settlement was paid and there was a prosecution. But the Met decided it was a one off incident and did not investigate phone hacking further. Case closed.

And then others, especially Sienna Miller began raising the alarm that they believed they were being phone hacked and pushed for investigations. Mollie Dowlers mobile phone voicemail was accessed after she had gone missing, leading to the belief she may still be alive. It was published in newspapers as evidence she may still be alive. When she was found dead and it was realised by the police investigating her murder that her phone was hacked, the story exploded all over the media. And public outrage was sky high. The public demanded the government do something. The government announced a public enquiry.